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AUSTRALIA COURT GIVES LANDMARK RULING ON INTERNET LAW

Australia’s highest court shook up internet law yesterday with a landmark ruling that an Australian mining entrepreneur could sue Dow Jones, the US-based news group, locally for defamation over an article on a website.

The ruling is believed to be the first in which the highest court in any country has ruled on the jurisdiction issue in a defamation case involving internet-based publication. Some lawyers suggested it might also be the first by a court at that level involving international jurisdiction and the internet generally.

The case involved Joseph Gutnick, a Melbourne-based businessman, who alleges that he was defamed in an article posted on the WSJ.com website, run by Dow Jones, and including “Barron’s Online”. Mr Gutnick said that he wanted his reputation in the Australian state of Victoria, where he lives, vindicated.

Dow Jones argued that articles published in Barron’s Online were actually published in New Jersey, when they became available on the servers which the news group maintains there. It argued that it was preferable that a publisher of material on the web be able to govern its conduct according to the law of the place where it maintained its web servers.

But the High Court of Australia said the defamation was ordinarily to be located at the place where the damage to reputation occurred – and where the information was available in comprehensive form.

Lawyers in London said this was in line with the principle that publication occurred at the point where an article was read or an email opened, say. Defamation would normally occur at that point, provided an individual had a reputation in the jurisdiction to defend.

THE FINANCIAL TIMES, Dec. 11, 2002