Monday, April 18, 2005

LAW OF THE STREETS: When is a diss actionable? In the case of Slim Shady v. Some Guy He Made Fun Of, a/k/a DeAngelo Bailey v. Marshall Bruce Mathers III, a/k/a Eminem Slim Shady, the Michigan Court of Appeals held that if the rap's mostly true, under false light you can't sue:
Examined in the context of the song lyrics as a whole, defendant’s story contains a number of signals that would convey to a reasonable person that it should not be taken literally. The extent of factual detail that a reasonable person would find unbelievable progresses as defendant’s story is told. Examples include the highly improbable event of a school principal assisting plaintiff in “stomping” on defendant and leaving him for dead, plaintiff’s successful attack on defendant with a broomstick after being beaten in the bathroom, and, ultimately, defendant returning home only to be beaten by his mother with a remote control, causing defendant’s “whole brain” to fall out of his skull. It is apparent that a reasonable listener would not take the song lyrics about defendant literally. The sting of the song lyrics rests in their characterization of plaintiff as a bully, rather than the specific factual statements about the bathroom assault. Thus, the material question is whether the literal truth yields the same effect.

In light of plaintiff’s admissions that he “picked on” defendant when defendant was in the fourth grade and that plaintiff was part of a group at school that did “bully type things” such as pushing defendant down, we uphold the trial court’s determination that no genuine issue of material fact was shown relative to this issue.

Remember, kids: a bully's like school on Saturday: no class.

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