Michael Geist – Supreme Court of Canada Stands Up for the Internet: No Liability for Linking. Well, duh! In one sense it’s amazing how this could ever have been an issue, but on the other hand publishing a link/reference to something could legitimately be seen as promoting whatever the target contained at the time the link was created, and so if “promoting” a point of view were illegal, then perhaps links would sometimes be liable.
What is most interesting to me about this is on the converse side. Justice Abella’s comment that she “would conclude that a hyperlink, by itself, should never be seen as “publication” of the content to which it refers” appears to provide protection against those who would presume to declare that others should not link to their material. Such declarations are clearly nonsense as it is the responsibility of the publisher to control access if that is what they want and if they choose to make their material freely accessible via a public address then anyone else is free to refer to that address.