Speaking your mind in Canada
p2p news / p2pnet: It’s now general knowledge, online, that p2pnet is being sued for libel.
But what’s really important is the precedent-setting case points up, vividly, the dangers ancient laws which automatically assume guilt present to Freedom of Expression in Canada, even in the digital 21st century.
They’re so draconian that, “people come from all over the world to file libel suits,” as Jeffrey Shallit, a professor at Canada’s University of Waterloo, emphasises on his web site.
We’ll drink to that. p2pnet is in British Columbia, Canada, but it’s being sued from Australia. And if the lawsuit succeeds, it’ll lock the law in and anyone from anywhere will be able to continue to victimize Canadian bloggers who have the temerity to post anything which can be said to damage a reputation.
Iron-clad libel rules may have made sense 500 years ago when British royalty wanted to stop the nobility from dueling by giving them a legal remedy against character slurs, says Shallit, but, “we don’t live in the time of Henry VII any longer. Debate on political [or other] issues can’t be robust and wide-open if the threat of a libel suit hangs over you”.
p2pnet is being helped in the Kazaa Kase by well-known Canadian media lawyer Dan Burnett, a supporter and lecturer on freedom of expression issues. Please go here and here for more.
And an embryo movement to have Canada’s libel laws revised and, ultimately, changed, has been born.
Meanwhile, though, even with Burnett working with, rather than for, p2pnet and editor Jon Newton, numerous other expenses remain, and to help raise awareness and funds, Canadian independent musician and record label owner Neil Leyton, long-time advocate for balanced digital copyright and internet freedom, is hosting a benefit concert at famous Toronto dinner and dance club The Rivoli on Saturday, August 5.
p2pnet will also be launching a unique Online Benefit Concert (OBC) coded by Jason Rohrer. It’ll feature music donated by musicians from around the world. Visitors will be able to either download mp3 tracks for free, or donate as much or as little as they want to help pay for lawsuit expenses and, once the case is won, continue to promote the Freedom of Expression movement to have the libel laws revised and changed placing the burden on the plaintiff, not the defendant, to prove statements are false.
“Furthermore, let’s exempt statements of personal opinion or belief, and force the plaintiff to prove that the statements were made with malicious intent,” says Shallit.
You figure there’s no way that can be achieved? Way.
Call it People to People Power – the Strength of the Net. Look what’s been achieved so far around the world in a few short years solely because now we can all talk to each other whenever and wherever we want, totally by-passing the usual coms media.
In alphabetical order, the line-up for the benefit at The Rivoli so far includes Aceface; Peterborough singer/songwriter Dennis O’Toole; Lindy and Neil Leyton.
If you’d like to be in on the August 5, performance on, please contact Neil Leyton at nleyton@gmail.com or 416 721 3566. If you’d like to talk to Newton, email him at jon@p2pnet.net.
Artists who’ve so far donated tracks for the OBC include Lindy, Neil Leyton, Dennis O’Toole (Canada); blues singer/songwriter Maggie Council, Ten Mile Tide, MUTE creator Jason Rohrer who, not surprisingly, is also a passionate musician; Cold Joon (US); and Bongo Love (Zimbabwe).
We’ll be including detailed notes on the tunes and the performers on the OBC, which Rohrer is in the process of coding. And we’ll be posting a temporary html version within the next few days.
If you’d like to donate a track or two, which will also eventually be compiled into a benefit CD, please send it directly to jon@p2pnet.net, with a few biographical notes and a pic.
And if you’d like to contribute right now …..
Cheers! And although words don’t even nearly do it, thanks ….
Jon
Digg this.
p2pnet newsfeeds for your site.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss
Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
July 12th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
A message for Jon.
Suing for defamation is a plague that is intended to deprive the sued party of their natural right to free speech and their money or because of an agenda that relates to business or personal interests. Once someone thinks that you have a power or money you are exposed to being sued for defamation, regardless of the facts.
Regrettably, I am an expert on the subject, having being sued for defamation four times in the last 9 years, as follows:
1. The wife of an executive of the music publisher who stole the music that belongs to my family sued me for defamation. The lawsuit does not say what, when and to whom the difamation statements were made. In spite of this anomality, the judge took 17 months to dismiss the claim.
2. A copyright attorney sued me for defamation because of a news article that I wrote and was published on a sonwriter advocacy web page. The news article said that the legal representation of a songwriter did a “sloppy job or was incompetent or wasted the songwriter’s time”. The songwriter had sued a major record company (Fonovisa) for $US 6 million for using two of his songs without his authorization. As it turned out, before trial was to commence, the lawsuit was withdrawn because there was no case against Fonovisa, as Fonovisa had never actually sold any unlicensed records. In a deposition the attorney that sued me was asked why he had asked for $US 6 million in damages (a huge, absurd, amount, even if the record company had sold a multiple platinum record) the reply was: “paper holds anything you put on”. The attorney wants an award of $US 2 million in damages for the alleged defamation. The case is pending in court.
3. The same copyright attorney as in 2 above sued me because he alleges that a fictional attorney on a work of fiction which I authored and posted on the web referred to him. The fictional lawyer is named “ratil”. The attorney alleges that he is “ratil” and it means I called him a “rata”, spanish for rat. The attorney again, wants an award of $US 2 million in damages for the alleged defamation. The case is pending in court.
3. The same copyright attorney as in 2 and 3 above sued me because he alleges that in a private (no witnesses) telephone conversation (with an executive of a tv/radio broadcaster for whom the attorney is doing some work) I allegedly said some nasty things about him. In deposition the a broadcaster executive said that I said they made “a big error in hiring the attorney” and that “he knew nothing”. Again, the attorney wants an award of $US 2 million for the alleged difamation, which is euphemistically called in the lawsuit “tortious interference and persecussion”. The case is pending in court.
What, me worry?
Jon, dont worry. The crackpots will be unmasked in due time in Canada and in Puerto Rico. Yes, paper hold anything you put on it, but reason will beat a piece of paper called lawsuit. Yes, the laws must be updated to the 21st, century. The dark ages ended five centuries ago and the legal system has not realized it.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com