P2PNet gets sued again for ‘libel’

This time for merely linking to a story that a guy claims is “libelous.”

Jon Newton, my “comrade in P2P arms,” over at P2P.net, sent me a note recently informing me of how he was recently served again with a libel related lawsuit.

Wayne Crookes, the Green Party of Canada’s ex-financier, names Jon alongside Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo, MySpace, PBWiki, 9 (mostly former) Green Party activists, and an Arizona proxy service for comments and links that Crookes says libels him.

He’s going after Wikipedia, Google and openpolitics.ca, a Toronto site, claiming he’s, “suffered an immense amount of frustration and emotional distress” over postings on Google’s Blogspot.com, within an entry under his name in Wikipedia, and on openpolitics.ca, run up by Michael Pilling [right], an Ontario and federal Green Party activist.

In Jon’s case it’s for simply linking to content that Crookes claims libels him, a no-brainer for dismissal in the United Sates but, it apparently has some legs to stand on in our neighbor to the North.

It’s similar to that as yet still unresolved Sharman Networks and ceo Nikki Hemming case in which it is claimed that an article on KaZaA and accompanying comments posted by readers of the site were libelous.

So who is Wayne Crookes?

According to the Canada-based Open Politics site:

Wayne Crooks is a Vancouver, British Columbia businessman who runs a business called “West Coast Title Search.” Since 1969 he has earned his living providing legal services to barristers and solicitors throughout British Columbia and elsewhere.
Crookes became a public figure in 2004 as the national GPC Campaign Manager in the Canadian federal election, 2004. After the election he remained the lead figure in the party’s management, as acting chair of the ERTC and chair of its successor, Management Committee. He remained in this role, and in the national campaign manager role, until he resigned immediately prior to the Canadian federal election, 2006.
As of 2007? Crookes appears to have no political role in any Canadian federal political party. In the period from 2000 – 2006 Crookes played very important roles in the financing and managing of the Green Party of Canada and to a lesser extent the Green Party of BC?. During his tenure as party manager, the Green Party endured difficult period of infighting known as the GPC Council Crisis.
Since 2004, Crookes has become publicly known for use of libel suits against individuals who have commented on his role in the Green Party, and the forums, websites, and technology companies that hosted the comments.

It’s really sad to hear that this is going on in Canada, what I thought to be a bastion of normalcy and common sense in an otherwise troubled world, and especially that this makes lawsuit #2 for Jon whose only crime to date has been to write that which others don’t want to hear. Imagine if we all were to be sued for such a so-called “offense?”

I only hope that justice prevails, the FREEDOM of SPEECH kind, and that the suit against Jon is dismissed. For you Canadians out there, I urge you to get involved.

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/politics/P2PNet_gets_sued_again_for_libel’;

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