Ottawa human rights lawyer Richard Warman had already won on this issue, but the Fourniers requested leave to make yet another appeal, which was turned down yesterday. The upshot is that they will have to cough up IP addresses and other information on the anonymous posters who, Warman alleges, defamed him on the Free D Forum. And of course the defamation lawsuit against them and other FreeD participants will now go forward, presumably.
More generally, the four-part legal test noted above seems to have become the strandard in Canadian law for determining where the balance between protecting on-line privacy and applying defamation laws lies in particular instances.
Finally, the Fourniers will need to cough up costs, probably in the low five digits.
Good on Richard.
ReplyDeleteWhat applies to the Fourniers will apply equally well to ISPs. The days of anonymous defamation are numbered.