The first high-profile trial over Twitter defamation will star none other than Courtney Love. The rocker is being sued by fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir, whom Love called a thief and a drug-pushing prostitute in a series of angry tweets in 2009. "She has received a VAST amount of money from me, over $40,000, and I do not make people famous and get raped TOO," Love tweeted. The trial is set for early February.
"I'll be interested to see if the court gives people posting on Twitter more latitude than other media," a defamation expert tells the Hollywood Reporter. "The way Twitter is evolving, it seems to be more of a means to express opinion. I would hope courts give tweets the same latitude as they do an op-ed piece or a letter to the editor." Lately, Love has been using Twitter to post racy pictures of herself instead of insulting people; click here for that story.
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