Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

limited publication

A distribution of copies limited to a selected group at a time when copies are not available to persons not included in the group; a publication that communicates the contents of a work to a definitely selected group and for a limited purpose, without the right of diffusion, reproduction, distribution, or sale. - Also termed private publication. 3. Defamation. The communication of defamatory words to someone other than the person defamed. "Publication means the act of making the defamatory statement known to any person or persons other than the plaintiff himself. It is not necessary that there should be any publication in the popular sense of making the statement public. A private and confidential communication to a single individual is sufficient. Nor need it be published in the sense of being written or printed; for we have seen that actions as well as words may be defamatory. A communication to the person defamed himself, however, is not a sufficient publication on which to found civil proceedings; though it is otherwise in the case of a criminal prosecution, because such a communication may provoke a breach of the peace. Nor does a communication between husband and wife amount to publication; domestic intercourse of this kind is exempt from the restrictions of the law of libel and slander. But a statement by the defendant to the wife or husband of the plaintiff is a ground of action." R.FV. Heuston, Salmond on the Law of Torts 154 (17th ed. 1977) "The publication of a libel might be in the form of a book, pamphlet or newspaper, but nothing of that nature is required. A letter sent to a single individual is sufficient." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal law 489 (3d ed. 1982). 4. Wills. The formal declaration made by a testator when signing the will that it is the testator's will.