BY JANICE TIBBETTS, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE
OTTAWA — The Supreme Court will venture into the legal world of the Internet, agreeing Thursday to consider a precedent-setting case on whether website operators can be found liable for defamatory hyperlinks.
The appeal is being brought by Vancouver businessman Wayne Crookes, who alleges that Jon Newton, who runs the website www.p2pnet.net, defamed him by posting a link to libelous material about him.
Crookes lost in the B.C. Court of Appeal, which concluded last year that hyperlinks do not constitute republication.
Crookes is a former organizer and financial backer of the Green Party of Canada.
He sought to sue Newton for damages related to an article that he posted in 2006 entitled Free Speech in Canada. Newton hyperlinked to postings involving Crookes role in the Green party.
In a 2009 decision, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a lower court's finding that the hyperlinks were effectively "footnotes" to Newton's posting.
"The purpose of a hyperlink is to direct the reader to additional material from a different source," wrote the trial judge, who noted that Newton did not post any defamatory material in his article.
The Montreal Gazette
