India FB, G, Yahoo ordered to remove anti re. Hyperlinking and ISP liability clarified by Supreme Court in Crookes case. The Supreme Court released its reasons in Crookes v.
Newton 2011 SCC 47 yesterday. The legal issue in the appeal was whether hyperlinks that connect to allegedly defamatory material can be said to “publish” that material. The majority of the Court concluded that a hyperlink, by itself, should never be seen as “publication” of the content to which it refers. Although the case dealt mainly with that issue the Court gave expansive reasons which will have significant impacts on future cases involving Internet defamation, freedom of expression on the Internet, and the liability of ISPs for dissemination of defamatory or infringing content. The majority reasons were delivered by Abella J., on behalf of the Coram consisting of McLachlin C.J. and Binnie, LeBel, Deschamps, Fish, Abella, Charron, Rothstein and Cromwell JJ. A hyperlink, by itself, should never be seen as “publication” of the content to which it refers. McLachlin C.J. and Fish J. wrote joint concurring opinions.
In Bunt v. R v Brown [1992] UKHL 7 (11 March 1993) Obscenity trial: the law is not suitable for a digital age. I welcome the news that a jury have returned not guilty verdicts in a landmark obscenity trial before Southwark crown court on Friday.
However, despite the jury's unanimous decision, the legislation under which the trial was brought is still effective law. The defendant, Michael Peacock, was charged with distributing DVDs featuring male fisting, urination (watersports) and BDSM. Peacock ran a gay escort site called "Sleazy Michael" and advertised pornographic DVDs for sale on the website Craigslist. He was charged under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 (OPA) with six counts of publishing obscene articles likely to "deprave and corrupt".
While some of the sexual acts depicted in the DVDs are legal to perform, such as fisting and urination, the representation of them is potentially criminalised under the OPA. However, the OPA has become an anachronism in the internet age. In Brown, colloquially known as the "Spanner case", Lord Templeman stated: "We train young men to drop fire on people.