Hyperlinks not defamatory according to Supreme Court of Canada
By Emir Aly Crowne & Arif A. Mahmood
Intellectual Property,
March 2012
The Supreme Court of Canada held hyperlinks to defamatory material is not “publication” of the material, but a neutral reference to the material’s existence without communicating or exerting control over the destination content, like a footnote. Crookes v. Newton, 2011 SCC 47. Freedom of expression and the information linking function of the Internet weighed against the application of a traditional publication rule.
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