The Supreme Court of Canada today granted leave to appeal in the Crookes v. Newton case, which involves alleged online defamation and the liability for linking to a defamatory article.
Update: Coverage from Canwest on the implications of the case.
Michael Geist
mgeist@uottawa.ca
This web site is licensed under a Creative Commons License, although certain works referenced herein may be separately licensed.
a few
A few picked it up
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Supreme+Court+consider+legal+implications+hyperlinks/2753554/story.html
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2753615
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/788778–supreme-court-to-hear-link-libel-case
This isn’t about libel or defamation, this guy is after something.
I can see this being abused if the SCC rules wrong.
Look at all the outdated links on the net. What if an outdated link goes to some site that is now illegal under Canadian law. Let’s say someone posted a link to a clothing site. The compnay goes bankrupt and its website is taken over by a cracked mp3 download site. Does that mean the linker will be tried and convicted for distribution and production of illegal music? ABSOLUTELY!
Michael, are you still implicated?
Michael, I knew that Crooke has initially named you in the suit a few years back. Are you still directly involved in this at all?