Had the book been published in its entirety in a single publication, it would have been difficult to examine a claim that seeks to see the book as a number of publications according to the number of chapters in the book. Accordingly, the gradual publication of chapters does not in itself indicate many publications, but it is necessary to examine whether the various publications added to what was published. This examination shows that from the time of the first publication, the character of the "villain" is presented as the one on which the plot revolves. There is no claim that any such publication added or contributed or altered the harm to the plaintiff in the chapters published in the book. There is no argument that the defendant sought to distribute the publications over a long period of time in order to intensify the harm or in a manner that disconnects the publications from one another. Nor is there an argument that the target audience of the publications changed from one advertisement to another.
- Thus, although it is possible to understand the plaintiff's heart in light of the exposure that the publications received and the possibility that many of his acquaintances were exposed to injustices against him, we are dealing with a single set of publications. Tractate Asher is in the midst of the publication of chapters from the book and around it attempts to increase the exposure of the book to the general public.
- The plaintiff further argues that the defendant should be awarded double compensation without proof of damage, since the publications were made with the intention of harming him.
- This argument is based on the provision in section 7a(c) of the Prohibition of Defamation Law, according to which "in a trial due to a civil tort under this law, in which it is proven that the defamation was published with the intention of harming, the court may oblige the defendant to pay the victim compensation not exceeding double the amount as stated in subsection (b), without proof of damage."
- The implementation of this provision is not intended to protect the plaintiff's good name, since this is the purpose of the authority to compensate even without proof of damage. The possibility of awarding double compensation is intended for those extreme cases in which a real intention to harm another has been proven. In a publication made out of "bad intentions and venomous conspiracies" (see: Civil Appeal 32031-10-12 Image in the Tax Appeal et al. v. Shlita [published in Nevo] 9 May 2013, paragraphs 9-11 of the judgment and the references therein).
- In the present case, it has already been found that there is an identity between the character of the "villain" and the plaintiff, and hence also the possibility of obligation to pay compensation without proof of damage for the torts resulting from it. The possibility of charging double compensation is based on the claim that the plaintiff's identification with the "villain" is not coincidental. On the claim that the defendant also asked that the readership identify the plaintiff with the "villain". In order to examine this possibility, therefore, it is necessary to go beyond the book itself and the details that are brought in it to describe the "villain", and to examine whether the defendant sought to make such a connection between the plaintiff and the character of "the villain".
- In light of this argument, here is what has become clear:
First, it turned out that typing the plaintiff's name into the Google search engine brought the first results to the book.