Is there a draft in here? Blog comments and libel chill
Michael Geist, well known as a thoughtful commentator on internet law and practices, wrote a column about a serious and far-reaching case of libel chill. The column appeared in the Toronto Star and elsewhere.
A British Columbia website, P2Pnet.net, is being sued for defamation for comments posted on the site by its readers.
"The suit, launched by Sharman Networks' Nikki Hemming, has attracted considerable attention because of the parties involved (Sharman Networks is the owner of Kazaa, the peer-to-peer file sharing service that last week agreed to pay the entertainment industry over $100 million to settle ongoing litigation) and because it highlights the vulnerability of thousands of Canadians to defamation lawsuits merely for providing access to other people's comments," said Geist.
He points out that P2Pnet has learned to its chagrin, that mere allegations of defamation face internet service providers with potential liability for failing to remove allegedly defamatory content once they have received notification of such a claim, even without court oversight.
"As a result, many ISPs and websites remove content in response to unproven claims, even if they privately doubt that the content is indeed defamatory. From the company's perspective, there is no legal risk to remove the content, yet there is potentially significant risk for failing to do so."
Geist says that the law creates a significant chill on free speech in Canada and that it is likely to increase the number of questionable defamation claims. This is a significant issue for magazine publishers, many of whom are rushing to blogify their columnists and many of which blogs attract a very, um, vigorous kind of respondent (for instance, Antonia Zerbisias's blog at the Toronto Star.)
Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. He can reached at mgeist@uottawa.ca or online at www.michaelgeist.ca. Last spring he gave the Hart House lecture at the University of Toronto and a podcast is available on the site.
(Thanks to the PWAC blog for alerting us to this.)
A British Columbia website, P2Pnet.net, is being sued for defamation for comments posted on the site by its readers.
"The suit, launched by Sharman Networks' Nikki Hemming, has attracted considerable attention because of the parties involved (Sharman Networks is the owner of Kazaa, the peer-to-peer file sharing service that last week agreed to pay the entertainment industry over $100 million to settle ongoing litigation) and because it highlights the vulnerability of thousands of Canadians to defamation lawsuits merely for providing access to other people's comments," said Geist.
He points out that P2Pnet has learned to its chagrin, that mere allegations of defamation face internet service providers with potential liability for failing to remove allegedly defamatory content once they have received notification of such a claim, even without court oversight.
"As a result, many ISPs and websites remove content in response to unproven claims, even if they privately doubt that the content is indeed defamatory. From the company's perspective, there is no legal risk to remove the content, yet there is potentially significant risk for failing to do so."
Geist says that the law creates a significant chill on free speech in Canada and that it is likely to increase the number of questionable defamation claims. This is a significant issue for magazine publishers, many of whom are rushing to blogify their columnists and many of which blogs attract a very, um, vigorous kind of respondent (for instance, Antonia Zerbisias's blog at the Toronto Star.)
Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. He can reached at mgeist@uottawa.ca or online at www.michaelgeist.ca. Last spring he gave the Hart House lecture at the University of Toronto and a podcast is available on the site.
(Thanks to the PWAC blog for alerting us to this.)
posted by D. B. Scott at
6:07 pm
1 Comments:
There's just been a case in the US of a blogger being sentenced to jail because he refused to divulge sources for a video he posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/us/02protest.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
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