Australia’s highest court Tuesday granted a businessman the right to sue a U.S. publication in Australia over an article published online in the U.S. and distributed over the Internet.
The case is considered a landmark ruling and could set a precedent for
global media companies publishing content in their home countries, while
being subject to foreign laws for posting the material for access on the
Internet.
The court unanimously dismissed an appeal by Dow Jones & Co., saying the
suit brought by Australian mining magnate Joseph Gutnick, was subject to
Australian law. Dow Jones argued that the Internet version of an article
from Dow Jones’ Barron’s magazine, should be heard in the United States,
because Dow Jones Web servers are located in New Jersey. Gutnick’s attorneys
were successful in getting the case tried in Victoria, Australia, where some
readers saw the story.
“The court was asked to determine where the article was published. It has
made no findings on the merits of the defamation action itself,” the
Australian court said in a statement.
The article originally appeared in an October 2000 online version of Dow
Jones-owned Barron’s magazine claiming Gutnick was involved in stock scams,
money laundering and fraud. Gutnick claimed the piece personally defamed
him.
Dow Jones said in a statement that it would continue to defend itself in the
case brought by Gutnick. Several other major media companies made legal
submissions as part of the case against Dow Jones in Australia, including
AOL Time Warner, Amazon.com, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, News Corp.,
Reuters and Yahoo.
The reason so many major international media companies are taking interest
in this case is because it marks the first time a country’s highest court
defined where Internet publication takes place in a libel case.
Dow Jones argued the ruling opens publishers of content on the Internet to
defamation suits in countries where the material is downloaded, and could
lead to a variety of new suits around the world, which may restrict freedom
of speech.
In a statement, Dow Jones said it “expressed disappointment” over the
decision and said “publication was not where the material was downloaded by
individual readers around the world.” Dow Jones said it was published on the
company’s “web servers.”
Dow Jones in its statement did say it was encouraged by court’s ruling
recognizing the “novel, complex and global” issues of Internet publishing.
