Demon Internet Ltd, the UK internet service provider found liable
for hosting defamatory usenet postings in March, has adopted a zero
tolerance approach to potentially libelous usenet traffic. Anything
Demon thinks may affect its appeal against the libel prosecution
will be deleted, and offending subscribers may see their usenet
access withdrawn. The ISP's policy extends to removing postings
that contain hyperlinks to potentially libelous web pages.
Demon was found liable in a High Court ruling after several 'flame'
messages were hosted on its news servers, which attacked university
professor Dr Laurence Godfrey. The ISP claimed the defense of
"innocent dissemination", the recourse of most ISPs to protect
themselves from the myriad potential libels hosted on their
servers. The defense was not upheld as Godfrey had told Demon about
the alleged libels, and it refused to remove them.
Godfrey, who has resorted to similar litigation on a number of
previous occasions, after the Demon ruling incurred the wrath of
usenet users, many of which believed the precedent could seriously
harm internet freedom of speech. Web sites have emerged re-printing
the original libel, but Demon is determined that they, or the URLs
where they can be found, will not be publicly available on Demon's
servers.
At the moment Demon seems to be restricting its activities to
comments relating directly to the Godfrey case. However, the ISP's
efforts do raise an interesting question: if it is scouring its
news servers for possible libel, would the defense of "innocent
dissemination" be inapplicable for any future libels suits arising
from usenet postings?
