This article argues that the novel was collateral damage in English law’s reaction to mass-market newspapers. A 1910 court decision made the writer’s intention irrelevant in libel cases. As a result, publishers became vulnerable to defamation suits from people unknown to a novelist but who happened to share a name with a fictional character. Drawing on the Society of Authors archive and the records of the Porter Committee on the Law of Defamation, the article reconstructs the campaign to exempt fiction from liability in cases of unintentional defamation.

中文翻译：

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作者和Artemus Jones：1910-52年英国的诽谤改革

本文认为，这部小说是英国法律对大众市场报纸的反应的附带损害。1910年的一项法院判决使撰文人的意图与诽谤案件无关。结果，出版商变得容易受到诽谤诉讼的侵害，因为小说家不认识但有一个虚构人物名字的人遭到诽谤诉讼。该文章借鉴了作家协会的档案和波特诽谤法委员会的记录，重构了一项运动，以免小说在无意中遭到诽谤的情况下不承担赔偿责任。