p2pnet goes to Toronto
p2pnet.net News:- p2pnet posts are liable to be few and far between until next Monday (August 7).
That’s because I’ll shortly be heading to Victoria on Vancouver Island, where I live, to get the ferry to the British Columbia mainland. From there I’ll be flying to Toronto for the Freedom of Speech round table and benefit concert at the Rivoli that evening.
Why am I going there? As University of Ottawa law professor and Net expert Dr Michael Geist writes in a BBC column, “The Rivoli, a well-known Toronto club, may seem like an unusual venue to consider Internet free speech. Yet, later this week, it will play host to a fundraiser in support of P2Pnet.net, a British Columbia-based website that 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 more than $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.
“Both Sharman Networks and Hemming sued P2Pnet last spring, claiming that an article and accompanying comments posted by readers of the site were libelous. Jon Newton, the owner of the site, has vigorously disputed the suit, pointing to the need to protect free speech and to ensure that defamation laws cannot be used as swords to create an online chill.”
Sharman recently dropped its claim, but Hemming is still suing me and the Toronto Online Freedom of Speech Round Table and Fundraiser will focus on the case and freedom of expression for bloggers and indeed, any Canadian with a Net presence.
Rob Hyndman will be chairing the Round Table and the panel will include Michael Pilling of OpenPolitics.ca, which has also been sued for online libel, Jason Young of Deeth Williams Wall, Russell McOrmond of Digital Copyright Canada, and me, Jon Newton.
Details on the campaign are here. Details on the roundtable are here, and on the Rivoli event are here. A press release with further information is here, and there’s a wiki here.
I’ll also be reading out comments from Charlie Angus, NDP parliamentary critic for Canadian Heritage, CIPPIC (the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic), BC media lawyer Dan Burnett who’s representing me, and Jason Munning of America’s Ten Mile Tide, the former Kazaa poster band which dropped its association with Sharman Networks and put its albums online for free to protest the libel action
If you live in Toronto, please help us out. Run off and distribute a few copies of the flyer below.
Because as we say on the Stop-the-lawsuit blog, although the Kazaa Kase appears to be a straight defamation claim, 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, is a blog in reality a content filter acting on behalf of persons unknown?
If Sharman/Kazaa win, 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.
Freedom of speech isn’t free – in any sense of the word – in Canada. For now ………….
Hope to see you at the Round Table and/or concert : )
Cheers! And thanks. And all the best …
Jon
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.
~Mahatma Ghandi
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August 2nd, 2006 at 8:36 pm
Give ‘em HELL!
August 4th, 2006 at 7:08 pm
This is great Jon. good luck to ya.
Rick