Monday, December 12, 2011

Gone But Not Forgotten

MARIEKE HARDY recently took down a blog post about someone for whom she has little time, but scrubbing  things from the web is a little more difficult than that. Despite her best efforts and best intentions, the post is still out there, and a simple google on the name of First Tuesday Book Club's resident wit and sweetheart plus a key phrase from the deleted post brings up an archival site where it may yet be found.

One would need to know a key phrase from her deep-sixed blog post, of course, but Crikey! lists at least one in today's bulletin, an excerpt of which has just been sent to the Billabong by a friend who observes that a defamation lawyer might rejoice to do the same search. This correspondent, who is no fan of Ms Hardy, notes rather gleefully that such a lawyer would be even more cheered by thoughts of the income she is earning from her book show appearances and, better still, the upcoming second series of her wonderful, witty and extraordinarily clever comedy Laid.

Apart from posts that refuse to die and remain very easy to find, defamation lawyers like few things more than a good laugh.

UPDATE: Quite a bit of interesting background on this matter at Tumbleweeds blog, where the plot thickens and some very valid points are made.

NO COMMENTS! The purpose of this post is to highlight the durability of information placed on the web. Even if an author takes down a post, there is nothing to stop a third party cuttting, pasting and reproducing it, which is the version the Professor turned up. In any case, as many readers seem to appreciate neither Ms Hardy's wit nor the frequency with which she appears on the ABC, and as lawyers are involved in the matter, there will be no comments. The learned friends are quite busy enough already.

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