Hello list members,

A cross-posting (sorry) however made for several purposes - Defamatory
comments on public Internet forums are open to challenge; Internet Governing
bodies are subject to public and legal scrutiny; and... we will probably see
more Internet spam!

Rgds, Don

The ex-owner of the spam blacklisting company ORBS, Alan Brown, has lost the
defamation suit brought against him by the former head of Domainz - New
Zealand's domain registry maintainer - Patrick O'Brien.

Mr Brown, who had to close ORBS and his ISP Manawatu Internet Service after
the suit and two court cases against him put him close to bankruptcy, was
ordered by Judge Gregory Ross to pay Mr O'Brien damages of Nz$30,000
(£9,000) plus an extra Nz$12,000 (£3,600) because of his "outrageous"
conduct.

Mr Brown said, when asked why he had chosen to represent himself: "At the
moment I've got a net worth of about $500. If I could afford $42,000, then I
could have afforded a lawyer." He has also said he will launch an appeal if
someone provides the funds.

The case was a very important one for several reasons. First of all, and as
has been extensively reported by the New Zealand media, it creates a
precedent for defamation over the Internet since Mr Brown made the offending
comments on an Internet newsgroup.

There have been several such cases in the US already and in the UK Laurence
Godfrey famously took both Canadian student Michael Dolenga and ISP Demon
Internet to court over libellous comments and won. But this is the first
such case in New Zealand.

Not only that but it led to the complete overhaul of the management board of
Domainz when several of its number complained that Domainz was funding both
sides of the defamation case. It was also the beginning of the end for Alan
Brown's ORBS company.

The situation arose when Mr Brown responded to previous arguments in a
public forum between Mr O'Brien and a third party. He made a variety of
claims at this point and in subsequent postings, including that Mr O'Brien
had used Domainz money for his personal gain, did not have the interests of
Domainz in mind, had committed a criminal offence, had threatened to silence
any criticism and was a "buffoon".

Domainz decided to intervene and sent Mr Brown a lawyer's letter asking for
costs and an apology. Once he had received the letter, Mr Brown made a
further three posts saying what was going on from his side of things and
using the legal defences against defamation as justification.

The judge in the case disagreed entirely and said the Mr Brown had failed to
show his comments came from an honestly held belief that they were true.
Instead he said they were more of a personal attack. Mr Brown also claimed
the legal defence of fair comment, but the judge said that fair comment was
based on an informed argument but Mr Brown has made no attempt to separate
fact and opinion.

The judge was also unimpressed by the fact that when Mr Brown was offered
the chance to apologise, he reacted by making further defamatory
allegations. The judge also said that a key motivator behind Mr Brown was
the financial welfare of his ISP.

The judge said of comments made on the Internet: "I must say I know of no
forum in which an individual citizen has the freedom to say what he likes
and in any manner he wishes about another individual citizen with immunity
from suit for all consequences." And so he made sure there wasn't.

The defamation case came on top of two lawsuits by rival companies that
claimed Mr Brown has wrongly put them on the ORBS spam blacklist. A judge
ruled for them in July.


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