I title this blog as “lecture'” when actually Adrian wants us to now call it a “symposium” (don’t worry I don’t know what that means as well but we just go along with it as though we do).

I found this symposium rather engaging and interesting as instead of the usual lecturar just rambling on at 100 miles per hour and expecting us to take down every thing they say in our notes, it was a more interactive space. 

The three tutors sat at the front of the lecture theatre and us as the students asked them the questions, on the topic of defamation and copyright.
I learnt that you must be able to first understand the difference between the two; defamation in my way of understanding it is saying something bad about someone else, which may ruin their reputation. Copyright is basically stealing someone else’s work without asking their permission.
When dealing with defamation and whether or not what is being said is technically counted as defamation, you must consider if its just an opinion or a critic analysis. If you are professional critic and your are critically analysing something you may get away with that as an excuse, although if your just stating opinion making it seem as though its the truth then thats a slippery slope.

‘Bob is bad at his job because he is fat’ and  ‘I personally believe that Bob is overweight, therefore he would be bad at his job, but thats just my opinion’. The second statement may seem a lot better, but if Bob takes offence to it and you try and argue that no ‘Ididn’t mean it like that’  it doesn’t matter they are both counted as defamation, in other words YOUR OPINION DOESNT MATTER!!

I raised the issue of a certain website called ‘urban spoon’ as I am a manager at a cafe, I can find some of the negative comments really offensive. Although there has been cases in which restaurants have successfully sued critics that publicise their opinion for others to see and that have clearly ruined the reputation. If i was to try and sue the implications of doing so may back fire as the public will see that I am trying to hide the critics views. Now I understand that if they arecritiquing the food and the restaurant can take offence if they give a horrible review, however I am interested in those sorts of comments that complain about the staff and what they wear or their behaviours. Personally I believe that that is ruining their reputation as an employee, as that is their way of earning an income and someone is criticising them. 

The persecutions of defamation are very serious in Australia especially in the Australian Media, with fines up to millions of dollars!
All in all if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all!