The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear the case of a former political campaign manager who claims that links to defamatory content on other sites is the same as publishing the content on your own site. The case was heard by a judge at the British Columbia Supreme Court and was struck down, but the Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear the appeal.
David Fewer, director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa, said:
"To import liability in those circumstances is to impose just a tremendous burden of liability on all participants in the internet,".
"Not just hosts, not just websites, not just bulletin boards, not just ISPs, but also individual participants, commenters on blogs, commenters in newspapers, newspapers themselves, other publishers who allow anybody to speak on the internet.
"You can just imagine the chilling effect that would have."
This is scary stuff!
Source: CBC
