Copyright © 2002 to Bruce Simpson
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Internet Defamation Case Has Far-reaching Implications Copyright © 2002 to Bruce Simpson |
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1:55pm NZDT, 10 December 2002 Although there have already been several other successful prosecutions for defamation over material published on the internet, a High Court ruling handed down in Australia this morning has many online publishers worried.
Rather than file in a US court, Gutnick filed his action in Victoria, Australia where the far stiffer defamation laws apply than is the case in America. Dow Jones had appealed this decision, claiming that since the article was written and published in the US, that is where such a case should be heard. In rejecting the appeal, the Australian High Court has effectively ruled that publication to occurs not just in the jurisdiction where a web-site's servers are physically located, but also anywhere the information on them is downloaded and read. Webmasters must now face the prospect of being bound by the laws of any country in which their content can be viewed -- a situation that many will find untenable. The court did note some commonsense limitations to this ruling however. Firstly, an action for defamation can only be brought in a jurisdiction where the allegedly defamed party already has a reputation that may be harmed by such publication. Secondly only one action can be taken for a single allegedly defamatory statement or article -- the injured party may not lodge multiple actions in multiple jurisdictions without those actions being labeled vexatious. In summing up, the court added that:
"Finally if the two considerations just mentioned are not thought to
limit the scale of the problem confronting those who would make
information available on the worldwide web, the spectre which Dow
Jones sought to conjure up in the present appeal -- of a publisher
forced to consider every article it publishes on the worldwide web
against the defamation laws of every country from Afghanistan to
Zimbabwe -- is seen to be unreal when it is recalled that in all except
the most unusual of cases, identifying the person about whom material
is to be published will readily identify the defamation law to which that
person may resort."
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The case involves a prosecution brought by mining magnate Joseph Gutnick who
alleges he was defamed in an article released on the Dow Jones Newswire and
subsequently published on the Wall Street Journal website.