In allowing the case to go to trial, the judge in the case soundly rejected that argument. Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard professor of law and computer science, agrees with the judge that Twitter shouldn’t reshape the way courts see defamation. The distinctions courts use to decide whether a statement is libelous—whether it’s presented as fact (potentially libelous) or opinion (usually protected), whether the writer knew the statement to be false—don’t disappear because the writing in question is a tweet rather than an essay.

via Courtney Love’s Libel Trial Inspires This Proposed Fix for Twitter Defamation – Businessweek.