CBC Story on Libel
Via Saskboy, (whose blog for some reason won't allow my comments.)
There's two things about the story that leap out. The first is the implication that there are unscrupulous individuals using the court system to sue people just to silence critics, hoping that the nuisance or expense of defending against charges of libel will be too much for most bloggers to be capable of fighting back.
I can't say much about that. I know there are some methods to have cases dismissed as frivolous without causing too much of a drain on the person being sued. To argue that such laws should be strengthened and damages for bringing them should be incurred to stop wealthy types from using them to silence poorer critics ignores the fact that doing so would almost certainly also have the effect of preventing poorer victims from suing for damages and risking financial destruction if the case goes against them.
The second point is the one where Canadian law appears to need serious improvement. The fact is that there are folks out on the internet who do post libelous attacks, and I have little problem with seeing such people punished. The issue raised by this story though, is how far the responsibility for such posts goes in our legal system.
If I write something libelous on my blog, I can understand that I may be sued for posting it. Personal responsibility is a value I take seriously. On the other hand, if somebody posts a comment on my blog that is libelous, do I now become responsible for it? To my mind, the responsibility lies with the author, but thanks to anonymous posts; finding the responsible actor could be difficult. Can you be sued merely because you allow open comments?
And the story seems to indicate that the line of libel suits may go far beyond that point. I've linked to Saskboy's post. If he has something libelous in it, or someone posts something libelous in his comments section, do I get nailed because I've highlighted the post? If I send this over to E-Group as I do some of my posts, do they also become liable? How about the companies who host our respective blogs? Is there a difference between the post itself and the comments it generates? What about if I link and talk about a small piece of a long post that contains a libelous statement in another section?
What about blog aggregators? The CBC itself has a blogwatch that shows links to blogs that are talking about CBC stories. Will they find themselves sued because they've driven traffic to posts containing libelous content?
Enough rambling. Suffice to say it seems pretty clear that the law surrounding this issue need to be updated.
