Looking For Details On Free Dominion Court Appearance??
On Thursday, the owners of Free Dominion appeared in court to request leave to appeal the decision by Justice Stanley Kershman, who wrote in his earlier ruling: "In my view, the defendants are under an obligation to disclose all documents in their power and control."
This case should be of interest to bloggers as it may be the new case law that deals with alleged libel posted online. In this case the owners of Free Dominion are being required to disclose the names and IP #'s of individuals who posted alleged libelous comments on their site.
The Fourniers appeared in court on Thursday to seek leave to appeal and it was determined that a ruling would come down on Friday, April 24th.
Neither the MSM nor any other blogger has carried the results of the request for leave to appeal. Since yesterday afternoon I have been trying to find out the results but I have not been able to access the Free Dominion site.
Does anyone have an update??
UPDATE (April 27th):
Connie Fournier from Free Dominion has provided an update today in the comments section of this post.
(As background, here is a month old MSM article concerning the details of the court case)
This case should be of interest to bloggers as it may be the new case law that deals with alleged libel posted online. In this case the owners of Free Dominion are being required to disclose the names and IP #'s of individuals who posted alleged libelous comments on their site.
The Fourniers appeared in court on Thursday to seek leave to appeal and it was determined that a ruling would come down on Friday, April 24th.
Neither the MSM nor any other blogger has carried the results of the request for leave to appeal. Since yesterday afternoon I have been trying to find out the results but I have not been able to access the Free Dominion site.
Does anyone have an update??
UPDATE (April 27th):
Connie Fournier from Free Dominion has provided an update today in the comments section of this post.
(As background, here is a month old MSM article concerning the details of the court case)
I am willing to bet good money that FD lost.
Posted by
Dr.Dawg |
10:19 am, April 25, 2009
Technically this has huge consequences. It means that a blog owner is responsible for any libelous statements published on their site - not just their own statements but statements by any other visitor to the site.
Posted by
leftdog |
10:30 am, April 25, 2009
Buckdog,
Aside from the liability issue (which is very important) the other troubling aspect of this case is that a ruling against FD may abet a plethora of spurious SLAP suits (a la Harper's Cadman action) by groups who seek to silence the voices of their opponents.
Posted by
Scott MacNeil |
11:14 am, April 25, 2009
Their site wasw modified on Thursday so as to not allow any new material to be posted and the site has not be available at all since yesterday [Friday] afternoon.
They get like this. Something happens and they don't allow any new contributions or they go off the air entirely. That says a lot about them, sadly.
Posted by
Anonymous |
11:29 am, April 25, 2009
We won the Motion. The Appeal is going forward. I hope someone took Dawg up on his bet.
Free Dominion's server was down over the weekend. No big mystery. It's up again. We've never modified the site so it wouldn't accept new contributions. That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! Someone should get Torontonian a nice big roll of tinfoil. Next thing you know he'll say we left contrails over his house. LOL!
Posted by
Connie Fournier |
4:50 pm, April 27, 2009
Did the Judge indicate when the appeal will be heard? (These things always take a long time to go forward, it seems). I'd like to diarize it. Thanks.
Posted by
leftdog |
6:34 pm, April 27, 2009