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Lawsuits Put Online Free Speech At Risk (in Canada)
This will be an interesting case in Canada because the plaintiff has asked for Yahoo, MySpace, and Wikipedia held liable for not monitoring their content. In Canada, there is no freedom of speech law unlike the US. Also named as a defendant is domain name provider for not divulging the owner's name. The argument being that the name provider has accepted the risk for registering the name.
This is another blow to free speech in Canada. The results being civil in nature will set precedent for future case in Canada.
While it will fall to a judge to determine whether the articles and postings are indeed defamatory, the inclusion of such a broad range of Internet intermediaries could have a significant chilling effect on free speech in Canada. If successful, the suits would effectively require websites - including anyone who permits comments on a blog or includes links to other sites - to proactively monitor and remove content that may raise liability concerns. They will also call into question the ability of domain name registrants to guard their privacy by refusing to publicly-disclose their identities.