This month the Supreme Court of Canada issued a ruling that protects Website owners who provide hyperlinks to allegedly defamatory content from liability. The facts of the case are as follows: Wayne Crookes, a British Columbian businessman and Green Party supporter sued various websites (including Google, Wikipedia and P2Pnet.net), companies and people, alleging defamation based on their publication of a hyperlink containing defamatory information. While many of those defendants were dismissed because of jurisdictional issues, the case against P2Pnet.net carried on. Then in 2008, a district court ruled that merely linking to defamatory content is not defamatory. Crookes appealed. In 2009, an appeals court upheld the district court. Crookes then appealed to the Canadian Supreme Court who agreed to hear the case. Again, the Court found that providing a hyperlink to defamatory content is not, per se, defamatory. Rather, the majority of the court found that only links that repeat defamatory content could fulfill defamation’s publication requirement.

Please read the following well written and concise articles to learn more about the Canada’s Supreme Court decision regarding this case.

• Supreme Court of Canada Stands Up for the Internet By Michael Geist
• Canadian Supreme Court Says No Liability For Linking To Defamatory Content By Mike Masnick