I provided a link which included history of the term. The original use was indeed directed at governments, but since the coining has grown to encompass corporations both public and private- Some refer to it as "libel tourism".
# Barbra Streisand, as plaintiff, lost a SLAPP motion after she sued an aerial photographer involved in the California Coastal Records Project. Streisand v. Adelman et al., in California Superior Court; Case SC077257 [10][11] See Streisand effect
"# In March 2009, MagicJack (company who promotes a USB VOIP device) filed a defamation suit against Boing Boing for exposing their unfair and deceptive business tactics regarding their EULA, visitor counter, and 30 day trial period. This was dismissed as a SLAPP by a California judge in late 2009. In the resulting ruling, MagicJack was made responsible for most of Boing Boing's legal cost. MagicJack Legal Documents # In the case Comins vs. VanVoorhis a Florida man named Christopher Comins filed a defamation suit against a University of Florida grad student after the student blogged about a video of Comins repeatedly shooting someone's pet dogs. This was cited as an example of a SLAPP suit by the radio show "On the Media". [1]"
In 2001 BC became a leader, very briefly, in protecting members of the public from being sued for speaking up, when it enacted the Protection of Public Participation Act, after extensive public consultations. However, this groundbreaking anti-SLAPP legislation was promptly repealed by the incoming provincial government after the 2001 elections.
Repealing the Act allows large corporations to use the courts to silence citizen’s concerns. Earlier this month, Barrick Gold, one of the largest mining companies in the world, managed to prevent, or at least stall, publication of a book on the mining companies simply by threatening a lawsuit. To be clear – Barrick Gold does not seem to have had any reason to believe that the book would defame the company, other than that the author had published a previous book that the company says was defamatory and is already suing over.
Canadian lawyer magazine reports on another recent BC case which has been called a SLAPP:
Jack Aasen, a 62-year-old retired justice of the peace, has been called “the poster boy for anti-SLAPP legislation.” He and his wife Judy, with three other residents of their Vernon, B.C., subdivision, were sued by local developer Leonard Brad Chapman and his three corporations over allegedly slanderous statements made by the residents in connection with their concerns about the developer’s handling of sewer and water services. …
Aasen says it was only because he represented himself that he and his wife avoided potentially ruinous legal fees for a case that ended up in the B.C. Court of Appeal. The appeal court ruled against the developer on several allegations, but did find that Aasen slandered the developer when he told the [developer’s] private detective that “he rides around on his horse and he kind of makes the suggestion that he’s got the mayor in his pocket.”
Although conceivably jurisdictions may differ, anti-SLAPP laws are generally aimed at protecting the right to petition GOVERNMENT.
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