Stop-the-Blogsuit Campaign

Please help !

p2pnet.net is one of the few active dissenting voices focusing on relentless entertainment and software cartel assaults on file sharing, peer-to-peer organizations and individuals using this technology.

p2pnet has also provided a venue for ordinary people, including victims of extortion lawsuits, to express themselves without fear.

In an ironic twist of fate, Kazaa owner Sharman Networks, a so-called p2p company, threatens to undermine p2pnet’s mission, my livelihood and the blog concept itself in Canada. Sharman and Kazaa ceo Nikki Hemming have filed a libel lawsuit against p2pnet.

Any blog, blogger or reader could be next. Please help me fight and stop-the-blogsuit from censoring online activism..

         

Meanwhile, the Sharman / Hemming suit appears to be a straight defamation claim, but what’s really on trial is whether or not an online publication – a blog – can be held responsible for something someone else posts. Or put another way, rather than being a publisher, is it in reality a content filter acting on behalf of persons unknown?

And there’s something else: as far as I’m concerned, an anonymous post is the same as a confidential source. I don’t have to like a post, or even agree with it. But I believe that as an honest and responsible human being, I do have to safeguard the poster, if indeed I know who he or she is which in this cased, I don’t..

If Sharman wins it’ll make life a potential hell for bloggers in Canada, at the least. And you can bet the case will be used as a reference for similar actions around the world.

p2pnet.net went online in August, 2002. It was the first Internet web page to carry daily, frequently updated news stories, features and commentaries discussing developments in the p2p and digital media arenas.

p2pnet’s focus is on digital media and file sharing, but the ultimate goal has always been to help launch a non-profit, collaborative and censor-free international news service through which on- and offline community print and electronic media outlets can access and exchange news which hasn’t been spun, filtered and pre-digested by vested corporate interests.

That’s what p2p is really all about – sharing information and data – and it’ll become increasingly important to the way world societies and cultures interact and function with each other.

That’s been p2pnet’s official mission statement for at least a couple of years, if not longer.

So this is more than merely p2pnet, which survives on the breadline, being bullied by Sharman Networks and Nikki Hemming, with millions of dollars behind them.

In the same way that I have faith in my online friends and neighbours, I also have more faith in my fellow Canadians than I do in the ability of Sharman and Hemming’s attempts to stomp p2pnet, in the process stifling freedom of speech here, and gaining a weapon for it and other similar corporations to use elsewhere.

That’s why I’ll be fighting this case before a jury.

And IMHO, I have three edges.

1 There are millions of potential on- and offline sleuths out there with access to a lot of interesting data which could be used as courtroom material;

2 There are also a lot of people who value a free and open internet; and,

3 The Canadian Charter of Rights enshrines freedom of expression, and even the ancient law of defamation needs to be respectful of that fundamental freedom.

And remember: the way in which this case is resolved could have a very serious chilling affect on blogs and bloggers everywhere, not only in Canada. So it doesn’t matter where in the world you are, if you value freedom of expression, please help me to get the best expert legal advice I can —- for all our sakes.

Cheers! And thanks …
Jon

Digg this.

You can also copy the HTML code below into your blog or webpage to display a small banner and help raise awareness.

And last, but by no means least, thanks for the page, Sandro in Quebec, and thanks for the code, Jason in New York.

Jon Newton

HTML CODE:



<br /> <P ALIGN="center"><br /> <A HREF="http://www.blogsuit.org" TITLE="Stop-the-Blogsuit Campaign" TARGET="_blank"><br /> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="http://www.p2pnet.net/blogsuit/blogsuit.gif" WIDTH="107" HEIGHT="149"><br /> </A><BR></p> <p><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="#0000FF">A Blogger Needs Your Help !<BR></p> <p><B><A HREF="http://www.blogsuit.org" TARGET="_blank">www.blogsuit.org</A></B></FONT></FONT></P><br />

Here’s what you’ll get (works with all background colors) >>>>>>

A Blogger Needs Your Help !

www.blogsuit.org

Here’s what some of the media have to say:

"The suit is a little odd, since P2PNet.net is a champion of peer-to-peer file-sharing, which is the same business that Kazaa is in." - Jack Kapica, The Globe & Mail, Canada

"Try and wrap your head around this one. Sharman Networks – the big daddy behind the Kazaa P2P software – and its CEO have filed a lawsuit against the pro P2P news site P2Pnet." – Ashlee Vance, The Register, UK

"This [lawsuit] is about as bogus as it comes — real crybaby stuff" - Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing,USA

"The content that has so unforgivably bunched Ms. Hemming’s knickers contains very little that most people would even think was inappropriate, much less defamatory." – Kevin Fayle, The Register, UK.