The Court upheld the publisher's right under the E-Commerce Regulations not to be responsible for user comments until informed of them. Newsquest also defeated a libel claim in relation to the article itself.
The article concerned Imran Karim, a struck-off solicitor, his sister and his mother. Headlined 'Crooked solicitors spent client money on a Rolex, loose women and drink', it reported a Law Society hearing at which Karim was barred from practising as a solicitor because he stole £868,000 of clients' money to fund a lavish lifestyle.
The article attracted some comments on a bulletin board attached to it.
The regulations state:
"Where an information society service is provided which consists of the storage of information provided by a recipient of the service, the service provider (if he otherwise would) shall not be liable for damages or for any other pecuniary remedy or for any criminal sanction as a result of that storage where -
(a) the service provider -
(i) does not have actual knowledge of unlawful activity or information and, where a claim for damages is made, is not aware of facts or circumstances from which it would have been apparent to the service provider that the activity or information was unlawful; or
(ii) upon obtaining such knowledge or awareness, acts expeditiously to remove or to disable access to the information, and
(b) the recipient of the service was not acting under the authority or the control of the service provider."
Full story: Newspaper thwarts libel claim with E-Commerce Regulations defence
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See also Sydney Irresistible and Mike Hitchen Unleashed
Putting principles before profits
See also Sydney Irresistible and Mike Hitchen Unleashed
Putting principles before profits
