Of course this comes from California. HT to SayAnyThing Blog.
(BCN) SAN FRANCISCO The California Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in San Francisco Tuesday on whether someone who posts a defamatory comment by another person on the Internet can be sued for libel.
Two civil liberties groups say the court’s eventual ruling, due in three months, could have far-reaching implications for free speech on the Internet.
While the case before the court concerns individuals—a Canadian doctor seeking to sue a women’s health activist for posting a third person’s comment about him—the court’s ruling could also determine whether Internet service providers can be held liable when they knowingly allow defamatory remarks to be posted.
Kurt Opsahl, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, said last week “it would be a disaster” if the state high court allows such lawsuits.
“The Internet would not be the rich and diverse place it is now,” Opsahl said.
SayAnyThing Blog wonders the same thing. Will bloggers be required to shut down comments? How about trackbacks from other ‘questionable’ sources? While we don’t attempt to libel anyone we certainly don’t pull punches. One commentor has called us ‘rude’. How about political candidates we expose for their ‘liberal’ position when they talk like a conservative? Would they consider that libel?
This case highly interests me as it does other bloggers.
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