Is freedom of speech dying online?

p2pnet.net news:- "In only a few months the Net has stopped being a place of freedom where anybody, anywhere regardless of race or creed, colour, sexual persuasion, physical ability or disability, or anything else, had a home," I posted on Saturday, going on, "It didn't matter who you were or what you thought, you could express your feelings and sentiments without fear. But that's changing with horrifying speed."

In 2007, anybody with more dollars than sense now feels free to sue web sites for the slightest slight. That's bad enough, but things have now reached ridiculous extremes.

If the Net is about anything, it's about freedom of speech and hyper-linking - directly connecting stories, data and information - is absolutely integral to it. Now, however, it's being claimed that merely linking to something someone somewhere doesn't like is sufficient grounds for a civil complaint.

Canada is preeminent as the defamation lawsuit marketplace. It's the place to go for forum shopping, but that doesn't mean to say it's not happening elsewhere as well.

Attempts to stifle, if not completely gag, people and sites whose views run contrary to those of the (usually) corporate mainstream are becoming commonplace.

"Some might accuse me of exaggeration when I say that Canada's libel laws are currently the most outdated and repressive in the English speaking world," said well known Canadian media lawyer Dan Burnett last year.

"I say it is no exaggeration."

Testing the anonymity of the Internet

The quote in the intro refers to a story which broke in the UK when university lecturer Andrew Dubber linked to a story highlighting Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG victim Suzy Del Cid's claims of trespass, computer fraud and abuse, deceptive and unfair trade practices, civil extortion, and civil conspiracy against the Big 4's RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

Over in the US of A, "the AudoAdmit site, widely used by law students for information on schools and firms, is also known as a venue for racist and sexist remarks and career-damaging rumors," says Reuters. "Now it's at the heart of a defamation lawsuit that legal experts say could test the anonymity of the Internet."

Net anonymity is already being tested, but that's nothing new. In fact, it's being going on for a couple of years, at the least. What is new is the fact the issue is at last receiving more than cursory attention from the mainstream media.

In the American case, "After facing lewd comments and threats by posters, two women at Yale Law School filed a suit on June 8 in U.S. District Court in New Haven, Conn., that includes subpoenas for 28 anonymous users of the site, which has generated more than 7 million posts since 2004," says Reuters.

In Canada, "Many bloggers dream of getting mainstream recognition for their work, but unfortunately for some, the attention they're getting comes in the form of a lawsuit instead of media-star status," says the Globe & Mail, continuing:

Earlier this week, Steelback Brewery president Frank D'Angelo filed a $2-million libel suit against Ottawa-based blogger Neate Sager for making what he says are disparaging comments about him.

In another recent case, Montreal art-gallery owner Chris (Zeke) Hand has found himself on the receiving end of a lawsuit as a result of something he wrote on the blog he maintains for Zeke's Gallery.

Warren Kinsella, a prominent blogger and newspaper columnist, sued another blogger for libel last year, but settled the case after the blogger apologized for his remarks and paid Kinsella's legal costs.

Zeke, also known as Chris Hand, is being sued for libel for comments he posted on his blog in Montreal. "Once you start dragging things into court, I do tend to dig my heels in," he says.

And p2pnet, a British Columbia-based news site that writes about file-sharing, is still fighting a libel lawsuit launched by Kazaa tycoon Nikki Hemming.

The most valuable of all human rights

A case currently winding its way through the Candian civil courts was started by Wayne Crookes, the owner of West Coast Title Search, a business in New Westminster, Vancouver, Canada, and an ex-Federal Green Party organizer.

He's suing everybody and his brother for linking to sites carrying stories which, he says, defame him. Among those named are Google, Yahoo, MySpace, PBWiki and a number of others, as well as more than a dozen online activists.

p2pnet is also on the list of victims, lined up in the same claim as Wikimedia which, I'm grateful to say, has folded me in with its own case, with Burnett, who's also representing p2pnet in the Kazaa case, acting for us both, as well as for other defendants in the Crookes lawsuits.

"If lawsuits are the price of admission to the mainstream media business, some bloggers might start wishing for a little less recognition," adds the Globe & Mail.

Actually, IMHO, freedom of expression is the most valuable of all human rights and what bloggers (and anyone else who wants to be able to speak freely on or offline) wish for isn't less recognition, it's more.

They're demanding legal protection from self-serving individuals and companies who use current laws, some of them dating back to the 1600s, to slapp down Net stories, comment posts, links, blogs and vlogs they don't like.

"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter," said George Washington in the 18th century.

Said Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Bill Schackner in 2005, "... there has been exponential growth in the number of blogs, where people post everything from vacation photos to amateurish poetry to scathing political commentary, often with frequent updates and room for others to post responses."

He added, "Maybe it's no surprise, given how empowering it can be to have one's own thoughts transported instantly across the globe. But once there, they become fodder for anyone who is inclined to turn an author's words against him."

Jon Newton - p2pnet

[url]http://p2pnet.net/story/12531[/url]
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Corporations in charge of the freedom know as "capitalism" are finding it more cheaper and profitable to sideline various forms of "free speech" in order to gain profit and doing so by cuddle up with communistic states.

I so love the "sue the bully" mentality if you cant take the heat go somewhere else, if you have to close the playground down because they don't like you, you've got a ton of issues...