Its not rediculous or unwarrented...
...ANYTHING you say in media form (newspaper, radio, website, message board and even blogs) can come back to haunt you. If you write something it had better be true or close to it. ..
Can you prove those statements?
I'll agree this was a boneheaded move, but the only party I see being sucessful in a lawsuit would be the newspaper for format something or other.
This could set a bad precident.
These things are can be brought on a libel or slander case
Attacks on a person's professional character or standing;
Allegations that an unmarried person is unchaste;
Allegations that a person is infected with a sexually transmitted disease;
Allegations that the person has committed a crime of moral turpitude;
The act is considered common law. In this case what the husker fan did is lible, because it was in written form or printed medium (i.e. newpaper, magizine, online article). Slander is when its spoken word.
It is different from the Cally pictures because that was a parody of a well know figure. You couldnt prove it caused any harm to his reputaion and was not done to try and cause harm.
The reason it could be a law suit in this case is it was done in malace and the figures could claim that harm was done to their reps because of a false crime allegation
Look at it this way, on the news they have to say that someone is suspected of a crime. They can't say that person is guilty or say they commited the crime until after the trial proves they are. If a news anchor said that joe blow was arrested for commiting 'xyz' crime, instead of joe blow was arrested on suspecion of 'xyz' that could cause a law suit.
