Terms: Reputation and Privacy

Absolute privilege

A complete defense to defamation for statements made in certain judicial or government proceedings, even if the statement would otherwise be defamatory.

Actual malice

For a public-figure defamation claim, knowledge that a statement was false or reckless disregard for whether it was true. It does not merely mean hostility.

Appropriation of identity

Using another person's name, likeness, or other identifying feature for one's own benefit without permission; related privacy and publicity theories protect different interests.

Defamation

Publication to a third person of a false factual statement that harms another's reputation, with the applicable fault standard.

False light

Privacy tort involving widespread false or misleading portrayal that would be highly offensive, subject to the relevant fault standard.

Libel

Defamation in written or similarly recorded form; the slides generally presume certain general reputational damages.

Opinion (defamation)

An expression not reasonably understood as asserting a provably false fact; ordinarily cannot alone satisfy defamation's false-fact requirement.

Per se

Latin for 'in itself' or 'by itself'; in slander per se, certain types of spoken accusations allow general damages without proof of specific economic loss.

Public disclosure of private facts

Widespread disclosure of genuinely private facts that would offend a reasonable person and lack legitimate public concern; truth alone is not a defense.

Public figure

Person who must meet the actual-malice standard to recover for defamation relating to the protected context; status can be general or limited-purpose.

Qualified privilege

Conditional defamation defense for good-faith communications to people with a legitimate interest, potentially lost through abuse.

Reckless disregard

Conscious disregard of a substantial risk; in public-figure defamation, serious subjective doubts about truth can establish actual malice.

Right of publicity

Protection of the commercial value of a person's identity against unauthorized trade use of name, image, or other recognizable indicia.

Slander

Spoken defamation; ordinary claims usually require proof of special economic damages unless a per se category applies.

Slander per se

Spoken defamation in recognized serious categories, such as crime, loathsome disease, professional misconduct, or serious sexual misconduct, where specific economic loss need not be shown.

Truth (defamation defense)

A substantially true factual statement generally defeats defamation; truth does not automatically defeat most privacy claims.