Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Fan Fiction & Poetry
Open Discussion of RPS Stories in Light of Heath's Death
louisev:
Unfortunately, and fortunately, celebrities give up a certain amount of right to privacy when they become public figures. In the life of a famous person, speculating about their lives and their work, even to the point of gossiping and telling untruths, can be done with a certain impunity, due to this clause 'public interest.'
If there is any legal defensibility to RPS stories, or RPF (real person fiction, not necessarily slash) it would be public interest. In exchange for the publicity they create and the living they make from publicity, the loss they suffer, while irritating and sometimes very humiliating, is to a certain extent both permissible and legal.
This is where ethics comes in. IF we apply the standards to Heath's life and to the suffering of his innocent family members, as well as his small daughter, as we do to our own, there are things we would never tolerate, and one of these things is people speculating about our sex lives and people we go to bed with. I believe that the reason we are talking about ethics here is that we are grappling with someone who has touched us all in some deep and emotional way, and to some ofus, we can no longer look on with what now feels like a prurient and selfish interest while others claim artistic right and freedom to do the same. I believe at base it is an ethics discussion.
ENEN:
--- Quote from: louise van hine on February 02, 2008, 03:14:38 pm ---Unfortunately, and fortunately, celebrities give up a certain amount of right to privacy when they become public figures. In the life of a famous person, speculating about their lives and their work, even to the point of gossiping and telling untruths, can be done with a certain impunity, due to this clause 'public interest.'
If there is any legal defensibility to RPS stories, or RPF (real person fiction, not necessarily slash) it would be public interest. In exchange for the publicity they create and the living they make from publicity, the loss they suffer, while irritating and sometimes very humiliating, is to a certain extent both permissible and legal.
This is where ethics comes in. IF we apply the standards to Heath's life and to the suffering of his innocent family members, as well as his small daughter, as we do to our own, there are things we would never tolerate, and one of these things is people speculating about our sex lives and people we go to bed with. I believe that the reason we are talking about ethics here is that we are grappling with someone who has touched us all in some deep and emotional way, and to some ofus, we can no longer look on with what now feels like a prurient and selfish interest while others claim artistic right and freedom to do the same. I believe at base it is an ethics discussion.
--- End quote ---
I understand that celebrities fall under the public interest clause but does that mean anything can be said or written about them without impunity? I recall a gossip site being stopped for printing some things about Jake Gyllenhaal . But as you said it really is a discussion about ethics and whether we view Heath Ledger as a person or a character.
louisev:
--- Quote from: ENEN on February 02, 2008, 03:23:47 pm ---I understand that celebrities fall under the public interest clause but does that mean anything can be said or written about them without impunity? I recall a gossip site being stopped for printing some things about Jake Gyllenhaal . But as you said it really is a discussion about ethics and whether we view Heath Ledger as a person or a character.
--- End quote ---
No, they can't print anything, and they can't say anything, but there is a great deal of leeway in speculation.
For example, the case of the lapdancer in London who said she spent the night with Heath having sex and doing coke. It is her word against his, and he is dead. Because he is dead, he can't sue for defamation of character. If he were alive, she would not be able to accuse him of doing so without she and the publication being liable for defamation of character. But the publication can't prove it, they don't have to show she was telling the truth, and there is no invasion of Heath's privacy or defamation of his character since those only apply to living people.
It is still despicable.
souxi:
--- Quote from: ENEN on February 02, 2008, 03:23:47 pm ---I understand that celebrities fall under the public interest clause but does that mean anything can be said or written about them without impunity? I recall a gossip site being stopped for printing some things about Jake Gyllenhaal . But as you said it really is a discussion about ethics and whether we view Heath Ledger as a person or a character.
--- End quote ---
Exactly right ENEN. It is, (again IMO,) treating him like a piece of meat, something purely for "entertainment". The man is dead. :'( I still feel, and I always will feel, that writing about him in that context now, is wrong and disrespectful. Ennis is another matter, he,s fictional, but not Heath.
souxi:
--- Quote from: louise van hine on February 02, 2008, 03:27:58 pm ---No, they can't print anything, and they can't say anything, but there is a great deal of leeway in speculation.
For example, the case of the lapdancer in London who said she spent the night with Heath having sex and doing coke. It is her word against his, and he is dead. Because he is dead, he can't sue for defamation of character. If he were alive, she would not be able to accuse him of doing so without she and the publication being liable for defamation of character. But the publication can't prove it, they don't have to show she was telling the truth, and there is no invasion of Heath's privacy or defamation of his character since those only apply to living people.
It is still despicable.
--- End quote ---
Even though the poor man is dead, they don,t consider the trash this woman has told about him, defamation of his character?? Unbeleivable! >:( As you rightly said, it,s despicable. I sincerely hope no more gutter trash comes out like that.Have these people no morals, or respect atall? I can,t beleive all this crap is coming out already. Poor Heath hasn,t even been buried yet. They make me sick the lot of them. >:( >:( >:(
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