By ADAM GIFFORD
The new chairman of the Internet Society (Isocnz), Wellington barrister Peter Dengate Thrush, is already facing his first challenge with the society's domain registry Domainz taking a defamation action against Palmerston North internet service provider operator Alan Brown.
Statements allegedly defaming Domainz chief executive Patrick O'Brien were contained in a December 23 post to Isocnz's e-mail mailing list.
Mr Brown claims that Mr O'Brien is using the threat of litigation to gag debate on Domainz activities. He also questioned why Mr O'Brien was chief executive of Domainz.
Mr Brown told the Business Herald he had still not been formally served with the papers, but Mr O'Brien had "done exactly as I predicted."
It will be the first time New Zealand courts will test whether words uttered in cyberspace can be defamatory.
Bruce Simpson, editor of internet news-site Aardvark, has already called on Isocnz to pull Domainz off its "frivolous lawsuit," as the allegations were made "using a mechanism that restricts their regular dissemination to only a very small number."
He has renewed his call for an alternative New Zealand internet organisation, saying: "It's about time we took control of the Net - if only to ensure that the right to represent its users isn't hijacked by a bunch of suits and that the freedoms it offers, such as the right to free speech, are preserved."
He said old internet users are used to "flames" or intemperate e-mail attacks, while "the new business types are not au fait and don't understand what is acceptable to internet users. It's a culture clash."
But Mr Dengate Thrush said the issue came down to whether defamation was acceptable on the internet.
"One of our decisions was to ask whether this was true, and do we want to tolerate it?
"The answer is no. The internet can no longer be seen as the private preserve or the uncontrolled preserve of individuals. It provides the substrata of electronic commerce which already amounts to billions of dollars. It must be run in a professional manner.
"It's time for some of the older hands to change their ways. That's part of the maturing of the internet community," Mr Dengate Thrush said.
While there is so far no case law here on internet defamation, Law Commissioner Donald Dugdale said the commission's reports on e-commerce suggested that the general rule as to defamation applied to material sent over the internet.
"The logic is that it can be any sort of publication. It doesn't matter what sort - it can be signwriting from an aeroplane," Mr Dugdale said.
Mr Dengate Thrush said some of the wiser heads on the Isocnz list had posted their views that Mr Brown should withdraw his comments.
"There's nothing wrong with sniping, robust criticism and firmly held views, but when it crossed the line into personal abuse and allegations of illegality, the directors of Domainz decided it should stop," he said.
As required by law the defamation action is in the name of Mr O'Brien as an individual, but it was funded by Domainz because it involves actions by him in his capacity as chief executive.
Mr Dengate Thrush said Domainz has almost completed a $500,000 upgrade in readiness for taking over responsibility for the .nz internet domain space from Waikato University.
"Included in that is a change of approach, which the council and Domainz hope will give a great deal more functionality to people involved in registration.
"The company is spending a lot of money and effort to improve the benefits of the internet in New Zealand for domain name registrars and users.
"Rather than debate that, which I would welcome, people have resorted to personal attacks on the company and its CEO."
Mr Dengate Thrush said the proceedings were filed in the Palmerston North District Court but not served on Mr Brown. A copy of the statement of claim was sent to him asking him to retract his December 23 posting and apologise by last Friday or the action would proceed.
"Mr Brown took the choice not to respond to the solicitors but to go public, including putting up the documents on his site.
"If there had been a reasonable response, matters would have taken a different course."
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