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posted by chromas on Wednesday March 20 2019, @10:24AM   Printer-friendly

The European Court of Human Rights published a preliminary judgement in the case Høiness v. Norway, deciding that Internet (Web) forums are not liable for what visitors write (warning for PDF). This means that European web sites are currently under no obligation to delete visitor postings even if someone else visiting the forum dislikes what is written.

The domestic courts’ refusal to impose liability on an Internet forum for anonymously posted comments was not in breach of Article 8

In today’s Chamber judgment1in the case of Høiness v. Norway (application no. 43624/14) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been:

no violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The case concerned the domestic courts’ refusal to impose civil liability on an Internet forum host after vulgar comments about Ms Høiness had been posted on the forum.

The Court found in particular that the national courts had acted within their discretion (“margin of appreciation”) when seeking to establish a balance between Ms Høiness’s rights under Article 8 and the opposing right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the news portal and host of the debate forums. Moreover, the domestic court

However, the decision is not yet final and during the next three months any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If the Court recieves such a request and a panel of judges kicks it upwards, then the Grand Chamber will hear the case and deliver a final judgment. Otherwise the decision becomes final by default.


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @11:00AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @11:00AM (#817294)

    A Høiness once bit my sister... No realli! She was Karving her initials on the Høiness with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given her by Svenge - her brother-in-law - an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink"...

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @12:19PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @12:19PM (#817304)

      We apologise for the fault in the frosty piss. Those responsible have been sacked.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @04:46PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @04:46PM (#817393)

        Høiness Trained by Ethanol-Fueled

        Special Høiness Effects khallow

        Høiness Costumes Bot

        Høiness choerographed by DannyB

        Miss Taylor's Høiness by takyon

            Høiness trained to mix concrete and
        sign complicated insurance forms by The Mighty Buzzard

        Høiness noses wiped by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us

        Large moose on the left hand side
          of the screen in the third scene
              from the end, given a therough
            grounding in Latin, French, and
                              'O' level geography by Azuma Hazuki

        Suggestive poses for the moose
                                            suggested by Michael David Crawford

        Antler-care by realDonaldTrump

        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @05:14PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @05:14PM (#817406)

          Anonymous... I fjart in your general direction.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @10:16PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @10:16PM (#817575)

            Now this is your last chance! I've been more than reasonable!

            Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

            Run away! Run away!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @06:18PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @06:18PM (#817438)

        We apologise for the interruption, those responsible for firing the frosty pissers, have themself been fired.. and now for something completely different!

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by rigrig on Wednesday March 20 2019, @11:34AM (6 children)

    by rigrig (5129) <soylentnews@tubul.net> on Wednesday March 20 2019, @11:34AM (#817297) Homepage

    TFS conclusion of

    This means that European web sites are currently under no obligation to delete visitor postings even if someone else visiting the forum dislikes what is written.

    seems a bit overreaching.

    1. Norwegian doesn't like some comments, sues the forum operators
    2. Local city court rules that the comments were not defamation under Norwegian law
    3. Norwegian doesn't like the ruling appeals
    4. High Norwegian court rules that defamatory or not doesn't even matter, because the website operators were not to blame for them anyway (because they had proper "report this comment" buttons, and did remove them when they received complaints)
    5. Norwegian doesn't like the ruling, appeals
    6. Appeal refused by Norwegian Supreme court
    7. Norwegian doesn't like the refusal, sues Norway for failing to enforce Article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the European Convention on Human Rights
    8. European Court of Human Rights rules that her rights were not violated, because the Norwegian court properly handled her case

    So basically all it means is that European courts are free to make reasonable rulings about forum operators who actually moderate their comment sections...

    --
    No one remembers the singer.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @11:47AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @11:47AM (#817298)

      Your post fails to not doesn't even not matter.

      • (Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @12:52PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @12:52PM (#817310)

        Module en_US.so.1 loaded.

        Your post fails to not doesn't even not matter.

        Macro expansion:

        Your post fails to not does not even not matter.

        Warning at line 1: Excessive negation. Did you mean "Your post fails to not does even matter", "Your post fails to does not even matter", or "Your post fails to does even not matter"?
        Warning at line 1: Malformed auxiliary infinitive to does (verb: "to matter"). Reparsing as "Your post fails to do not even matter."
        Error at line 1: Auxiliary verb can't modify intransitive verb.

        Parser gave up.

        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @01:10PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @01:10PM (#817315)

          Fails to not = does

          -> Your post does "does not even not matter".

          Does not even not matter = does matter

          -> Your post does "does matter".

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Bot on Wednesday March 20 2019, @11:50AM

      by Bot (3902) on Wednesday March 20 2019, @11:50AM (#817299) Journal

      I guess the original disparaging comment was about the guy "not taking NO for an answer"?.

      --
      Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @12:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @12:31PM (#817305)

      You're hired! Please start rewriting TFS of any story currently in the queue. We'll be in touch regarding your free SN mug and $2 coupon to the coffee distillery of your choice.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 20 2019, @02:19PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 20 2019, @02:19PM (#817338) Journal
      Sounds then like we're waiting for "9. Norwegian doesn't like ruling. Formally requests that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court."
  • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday March 20 2019, @03:28PM

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Wednesday March 20 2019, @03:28PM (#817369) Homepage Journal

    Folks in Norway voted, very wisely, not to join the horrible E.U., also known as European Union. But, they need to EXIT E.C.H.R., the Europe Convention of Human Rights. Otherwise known as something even longer. They need protection and security -- these rulings are making their country unsafe! I.S.I.S., Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and everyone else can tweet anomalously on their websites. Their internet. Very dangerous and unwise!

  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday March 20 2019, @10:49PM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday March 20 2019, @10:49PM (#817594) Journal

    But what do Devin Nunes’ Mom and Cow say, on the twitter [rawstory.com]?

    Meanwhile, in England, where the Brexit if Breaksiting, it is still a principle of the Queen's law that "the greater the truth, the greater the libel". It is a local nation, for local people, [fandom.com] and there is nothing for a European Commission on Human Rights. As Edmund Burke wrote [wikipedia.org], in response to that Commie American, Thomas Paine, and his "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen" (Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789 [wikipedia.org]), there are no human rights, only rights of subjects of a monarchy, so Englishmen do not have "human rights", but only local, Englishmen's rights. So thank goodness the Royal Family of Scotland and the United Kingdom will soon no longer have to be subjected to freedom of speech by pleblians and all other such "modern" liberal ideas! Brexit forever! Just not until next month, OK? /sarc

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