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We scowl at bullies, whether in the playground, school or even in relationships. To us, bullies ruin the fun, they make situations unhappy and they cause trouble repeatedly. It might even be impossible to reform a bully without public humiliation or other suitable punishment.

What differs internet bullies from real life bullies? Those on the internet also spoil the fun, cause sadness, and create unnecessary trouble for the innocent. Cyberbullies use methods such as stalking users, leaving unpleasant messages, and divulging private details of a user to other netizens. No physical damage may occur, but it leaves victims with a sour feeling about their lives.

Missouri, a state in the United States of America, have gone so far as to have criminalized the act of cyberbullying.

However, let’s ask a few questions here. How do cyberbullies get the power to impact someone’s life in the first place? Where do these bullies get user private information to blackmail users with? Are they even bullies in the first place? Let’s take a look at two examples.

Consider popular blogger Perez Hilton. Calling himself “Hollywood’s most hated blogger since 2004″, he rose to fame by publishing about celebrity misdeeds and misfortunes.

Is he a cyberbully? He has been posting paparazzi shots of celebrities which are obviously not authorized by these celebrities and he hasn’t been particularly nice to most of them in his comments. Yet his output is considered entertainment by readers. Who said celebrities have less rights to privacy as compared to (as Sarah Palin would put it) Joe Sixpack?

Would Perez Hilton hack into a celebrity’s digital account if it would give him more publicity? There is no evidence that he has done it, but he most probably would.

Hence, what is the rationality of the furore caused by readers over bloggers who blog about people in smaller, lesser-known communities? Case in point, the number of negative comments and feedback received by blogger Angela Landsbury over her website “Are You Hamasexual“. Catering more to a niche market, Landsbury claims she attracts a lot of negative responses over her site content and commentary.

What is special about Landsbury’s case is that the pictures she posts are taken from posts her subjects have made on the past in public forums. “They say I’m violating copyright laws, but those photos were not copyrighted, and neither were they stolen,” Landsbury exasperatedly stated.

Would Landsbury violate laws and privacy rights to get readers? That doesn’t seem likely yet given her target audience and subjects.

Now what makes Perez Hilton a hero but Angela Landsbury a criminal? They are both merely owners of media outlets that publish content on people, except the former writes about celebrities.

Are they bullies, or are they not? With the times going faster than we probably have prepared for, this issue will in the future be an important one to keep out for.