Free Dominion is a Canadian-based political news website where users regularly post articles or link to online content for the purposes of political debate. On January 10, 2008, an eleven-paragraph column by National Post columnist Jonathan Kay was posted to the site. When the Post complained in April 2010, the column was replaced with shorter excerpt that included the same headline along with 3 full paragraphs and one half-paragraph. A month later, a site user posted a link to a photograph that was posted on the photographer’s website. The photograph itself was not posted as only a link was used.
These postings and links were not particularly unusual – similar actions occur millions of times every day - yet soon after, Free Dominion was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit claiming the posting and the link violated the Post and photographer’s copyright.
Last week, the Federal Court of Canada issued its ruling, dismissing both claims (along with a claim over the posting of a second article for which the limitation period to sue had expired). The decision has enormous implications for Internet users, news organizations, and free speech in Canada as it removes much of the legal uncertainty surrounding sharing information online.
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