Shakespeare is famous for a line from Henry VI, which is often quoted when people have anything to do with the courts, or the legal system.
The line goes, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
Many in the online community probably felt like they wanted to go all Shakespearian on the whole Supreme Court of Canada when earlier this month it agreed to hear a case concerning hyperlinking on websites and defamation.
Although it may sound like a space age travel system using black holes and light speed, hyperlinking is really just when one website links to another.
You know, the blue text you can click on? That's hyperlinking.
The case involves a former Green Party campaign manager and his argument that when a Canadian website posted links to two U.S. websites that featured defamatory statements, it was the same as publishing defamatory material itself.
In 2008, the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled against the former campaign manager, Wayne Crookes, dismissing the case and saying the links were like a footnote or a reference to a website in a newsletter.
But even though the site didn't reproduce any of the supposedly defamatory statements, or even make comments about the statements - and even though the courts dismissed the case - Mr. Crookes appealed and is now set to present his argument to the country's highest court.
Crookes, who probably disagrees with the Bard of Avon's sentiments about lawyers, also launched libel actions against people from the Green Party of Canada, Google, Myspace.com and Wikipedia.
If the Supreme Court decides to side with Crookes, it could set a very limiting precedent that would have a major impact on the internet as we know it.
Think about it. Every website you've ever been on has links to other web sites.
Indeed, the very nature of the Internet is based on the use of hyperlinks, so any legal decision that puts a burden of liability on such an integral part of the online world will surely impede my ability to, y'know, get cheat codes for my video games from web sites and such.
So, like, this really concerns me.
But seriously, this should concern everyone who uses the Internet, from bloggers to forum commentators, online newspapers and publishers, Internet service providers to everyday web-surfers.
Unfortunately, libel and defamation laws were written when newspapers and magazines were the only ones publishing, so the Internet falls into a weird cyber grey area.
Is linking to someone else's website the same as publishing their content?
It certainly is a fine line deciding between policing the everyone-is-a-writer-and-publisher mentality of the Internet and free speech.
Most Internet experts say the Supreme Court will probably uphold the lower court ruling and validate the conclusions.
I hope so, because if not, who knows where it could all lead in the end?
You never know, I could be sued one day for inciting hatred against lawyers just by having quoted Shakespeare.
Now that would seriously cut into my video gaming time.
