Legal Research

My first Slaw post - SCC on blogging

By David Canton

I’d like to thank Slaw for inviting me to be a regular contributor.

Ironically, this first post is a reference to my latest weekly London Free Press article that was inspired by a post on Slaw entitled “SCC Recognizes Blogging“.

While I can’t reproduce the article here for contractual/copyright reasons, you can read it on my blog, on Canoe, or on the Free Press site.

The article starts off with “A recent Supreme Court of Canada decision concerning a libel suit against a radio host referred to the changing attitudes surrounding public comment and defamation in today’s modern and technologically savvy society.”

Some thoughts from this:

First, in an era where everyone is a publisher, we tend to perceive commentary in a different, perhaps more skeptical, light, depending on the identity of the commenter, their reputation, their familiarity to the reader/listener, and the number of like comments.

Second, we should pause and consider carefully how we as individuals respond to negative comments, and how we as lawyers advise those individuals. Traditional approaches might cause more harm than good.

Third, its good to see that the SCC seems to keep in tune with modern technology and how it affects legal issues. Contrast that with legislator attempts at copyright reform.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on July 30, 2008 (boomark / email).