Monday, February 8, 2010

Blog wars in court or, don't blog about someone who sues... .

What a story of war online turned over to the Courts! I almost hesitate to blog the story!!!

That said, the bloggers who repeated a story from a major newspaper -- and who presumably then commented on the story -- might be able to rely on the standard of care defence just created by the Supreme Court of Canada. Of course, they would still need to defend themselves in court at great expense and inconvenience.

Here's the story:

http://tiny.cc/8DOw2


The Lemire case gave rise to the current libel suit, because Mr. Lemire hired an expert who analyzed computer records and alleged Mr. Warman was the author of an online comment in 2003 about Canadian Senator Anne C. Cools, including racist and sexist epithets.

This case is against bloggers who repeated that allegation, which Mr. Warman denies.

1 comment:

Stephen Downes said...

The fact that we must go to great inconvenience and expense to defend ourselves against baseless charges - whether bloggers or otherwise - demonstrates the fundamental lack of justice that exists in society.

Only when people have equal access to the law is the law just. The costs and inconvenience today may our system of law very unjust. If you are rich, you can get away with whatever you want and bully other people. If you are poor you have to just take it.

lawyers should be the most offended of all by this system, but they seem to mind it the least.