# Can you libel a dead person? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2002, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-libel-a-dead-person/99851 "2002-03-24T13:39:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-libel-a-dead-person/99851/1 "2002-03-24T13:39:57Z")
Is there such a thing as libel/slander if the subject of the slur is deceased? N.B. My question applies only to the laws of the US and Europe. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-libel-a-dead-person/99851/2 "2002-03-24T14:18:39Z")
Cecil touches upon this topic in this [column](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_144b.html). ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-libel-a-dead-person/99851/3 "2002-03-24T14:20:48Z")
How does this apply to stars like Elton John and Billy Joel who have copyrighted their names? ---
**Author:** ![Mad\_Matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Mad\_Matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mad_Matt)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-libel-a-dead-person/99851/4 "2002-03-24T14:36:51Z")
In the UK you can not libel the dead. This site [http://www.writersworld.tv/authors/libellaws.htm](http://www.writersworld.tv/authors/libellaws.htm) says: > [@](#): > > LIMITATION AND DEATH > As from September 1996, the new Act has reduced from three years to one the period within which a libel action must generally be started if it is not to become ‘statute-barred’ through lapse of time. But successive and subsequent publications, such as the issue of later editions of the same book, or the sale of surplus copies of an old newspaper, can give rise to fresh claims. > > Civil claims for libel cannot be brought on behalf of the dead. If an individual living plaintiff or defendant in a libel case dies before the jury gives their verdict, the action ‘abates’, i.e. comes to an end, so far as their involvement is concerned, and no rights arising out of it survive either for or against their personal representatives. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-libel-a-dead-person/99851/5 "2002-03-24T14:55:54Z")
John Thaw and Spike Milligan were involved in a syndicate that sold pornographic pictures of underage sheep. [sub]My, that was in extremely poor taste.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2002, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-libel-a-dead-person/99851/6 "2002-03-26T07:26:03Z")
I know for sure that you can’t hurt their feelings. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-libel-a-dead-person/99851/7 "2002-03-26T15:59:46Z")
IANAL but I did get an A in media law last year… According to US law, you cannot libel the dead. The estate/survivors of the person in question cannot sue you if you say something nasty about a dead person because there are 7 criteria or something you have to meet in order to prove libel/slander, one of them being that the words caused personal trauma and you can’t very well be traumatized if you’re 6 feet under. And the trauma of the survivors doesn’t count. So, you can say publicly or publish that JFK used to kill little children and eat them for breakfast and no one can sue you for it. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2002, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-libel-a-dead-person/99851/8 "2002-03-26T16:04:21Z")
There was a lawsuit regarding that in 1964, when a scurrilous “biography” of Jean Harlow was published. Her father sued the author and publisher, but a judge ruled that you cannot libel the dead. . . Which explains the trashy books that come our right after celebs die . . . (cough—Mommie Dearest—cough) ---
**Author:** ![Zappo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b3f665/32.png) [@Zappo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zappo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2002, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-libel-a-dead-person/99851/9 "2002-03-26T17:36:31Z")
No. IAAL. Zap! ---
**Author:** ![Neurodoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/848f3c/32.png) [@Neurodoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurodoc)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-libel-a-dead-person/99851/10 "2002-03-28T05:19:32Z")
Not only do the dead have no protection against claims of libel or slander, they lack other legal protections afforded to the living…a good example would be the right to “confidentiality” as regards medical information that otherwise would be protected. In other words, nothing about the dead is confidential or protected. For example, the fact that a living person may be infected with HIV is considered “protected” information. Once the person is defunct, no such confidentiality exists. ---
**Author:** ![schplebordnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@schplebordnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schplebordnik)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-libel-a-dead-person/99851/11 "2002-03-28T07:23:48Z")
Well, the dead do retain at least one right: right of publicity (in California at least. New York they didn’t although there was some noise a few years ago to grant ROP to the dead). Most famous (and first real) case was Bela Lugosi. Larry, Moe & Curley won a recent victory: [http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=law/View&c=Article&cid=ZZZDH0T38MC&live=true&cst=1&pc=0&pa=0](http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=law/View&c=Article&cid=ZZZDH0T38MC&live=true&cst=1&pc=0&pa=0)