‘Libel Tourism’ and p2pnet
p2pnet view Freedom | P2P:- Yesterday I did a post saying at the Supreme Court of Canada, on December 7, I’ll be up against Wayne Crookes, a Vancouver businessman who wants to break the links which bind the web in Canada’s most important freedom of speech court case to date.
He says linking is the same as publishing.
“The basic problem, as I see it, is the lack of fundamental free-speech protection in Canada, where I gather it’s more of a ‘tradition’ built on some legal precedents than a law, and that’s a very big problem”, says New York Times columnist Joe Sharkey (right) in an email.
“Still, the other and newer issue is whether someone who links to something is responsible for what’s on that link, and on the links to the link, ad infinitum”, he says, going on >>>
That really needs addressing.
I know the crazy suit against me in Brazil is mostly predicated on comments that were appended to my blog, or were contained in news account links from (and TO) my blog and to the NYT story I wrote.
Those comments from others were not libelous under US law, and did not come from me anyway. (The complaint does not recognize this, but as I said, it’s crazy and you can’t reason with crazy)
Sharkey was sued for defamation in Brazil, he said almost exactly a year ago.
He “was a passenger on the business jet which collided at 37,000 feet (11,280 meters) on September 29, 2006 with a Boeing 737, killing all 154 people aboard the Brazilian airliner”, says Agence France-Presse.
Sharkey and the six other people survived after making an emergency landing in the jungle.
“He said the lawsuit against him concerned a personal blog he maintained and television and radio interviews he conducted about the accident”, says AFP.
Now, “The links dilemma is a whole new kettle of fish on both sides of the border, it seems to me, because obviously even with U.S. protections under the first amendment, a tangle of links might well lead to or from something that is in fact libelous even in the U.S”, says Sharkey.
No ironclad guarantee
In an earlier email, “As you may know I’ve been down this road“, said Sharkey, continuing >>>
The upshot in the U.S. is that Obama recently signed into law the so-called SPEECH act, which prohibits the enforcement in the U.S. of a foreign libel judgment that involves speech, in the U.S., that would be protected under the U.S. first amendment. It doesn’t stop a foreign plaintiff from getting a judgment in a foreign court, but it does stop any attempt to enforce the judgment in this country.
The U.S. first amendment is the keystone. Canada, of course, has no such ironclad guarantee.
I know that one of the five or six major cases that helped in the drive to get Congress to pass the SPEECH act involved an American journalist (his name escapes me right now) who is being sued in Canada on allegations that something he published in the U.S., and which became available online, constituted defamation against a Canadian university in a terrorism-training matter. I’m being sued in Brazil on asinine allegations — partly because of a blog written here that the Brazilians contend was de facto published in Brazil. I’m now protected from the enforcement of a judgment here in that suit.
The main case that drive the SPEECH act was that of Rachel Ehrenfeld, a scholar in New York who lost a libel suit to an aggrieved Saudi billionaire in the notorious English High Court, on the assertion that her book about terrorism financing mentioned him. Rachel had a large network of people working on her behalf, who ultimately got the speech act passed.
The name they gave to this phenomenon is “libel tourism,” as you probably know.
Keep Free Speech Free Online
I’m asking anyone who can spare a dollar or two to help with out of pocket expenses in the December Crookes v Newton Supreme Court hearing by clicking the donate button below.
Alternatively, cheques can be made out to “Owen Bird Law Corporation In Trust” and mailed to Owen Bird, 2900-595 Burrard St. Vancouver BC, V7X 1J5 (Attention: Dan Burnett, file ref. 26883-1); or, Jon Newton, a/c # 08720-5035779, PO Box 1532, Lake Cowichan, British Columbia, Canada V0R 2G0. This Royal Bank account has been set up specifically, and only, for the court case.
Anything remaining after the case will go to the Make A Wish foundation of Canada.
You can also help by spreading the word on Twitter, Slashdot, Facebook, in forums, on your own site, chats, IM, texting, and so on.
Stay tuned.
Cheers! And thanks …
Jon Newton - p2pnet
most important – Crookes vs p2pnet fund raiser, September 9, 2010
been down this road – Justice David Eady and the Threat to Free Speech in the U.S., December 21, 2009
Agence France-Presse – Freelance US journalist sued for defamation in Brazil, September 25, 2009
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