Oz ruling expands libel law
Cyberbiz Brief
Mining magnate Joseph Gutnick sued Dow Jones financial publication Barron's over an October 2000 article, also published online, that portrayed him as prone to stock scams, money laundering and fraud. With the Australian Supreme Court's decision, Gutnick can sue Barron's over the article in his home Australian state of Victoria.
The ruling could become precedent-setting in other Commonwealth countries, including England, New Zealand and Canada, legal experts said. While it may not have a large impact on major publishers, some observers worried that it will have a chilling effect on smaller operations that can't afford the legal representation needed to fight a suit in a foreign country.
Software that allows companies to block access to their material based on the origin of the reader's Internet address could come into wider usage. But observers said that solution also is problematic, destroying one of the Net's more remarkable qualities, its global reach.
Even the high court, though unsympathetic to many concerns raised by Dow Jones, did acknowledge that its own solution was "less than wholly satisfactory.
"(The results of the case) appear to warrant national legislative attention and to require international discussion in a forum as global as the Internet itself," the court wrote in its decision.
