-36for their dissemination, but the respondents were not aware of their content and
realistically, in a many-to-many context, did not have the ability or opportunity
to prevent their dissemination, having learned of them only after they had
already been published by their originators. The respondents are therefore in
principle able to invoke the innocent dissemination defence as subordinate
publishers. I deal in the next Section with the consequences of their acquiring
knowledge of the defamatory content as such subordinate publishers.
L.
Reasonable care and subsequently acquired knowledge
90.
Formulated as a defence which requires the defendant to prove that
he did not know and would not, with the exercise of reasonable care in the
relevant circumstances, have known that the article contained defamatory
content, the focus of the innocent dissemination defence has been on past,
completed publications.
Thus, a newsagent who has already sold its
consignment of newspapers which contained an offending article will rely on
the defence seeking to prove that, when making the sales, it was not aware of
the defamatory content and could not, with reasonable care, have discovered it.
91.
What is needed to satisfy the standard of reasonable care will vary
according to the circumstances. Thus, in an internet context, the standard may
well demand particular monitoring of postings by certain forum members or of
postings on particular discussion topics if previous experience indicates a
propensity or special risk of defamatory postings.
92.
The potential need for particular care in certain cases is illustrated by
two decisions involving defendants who mounted campaigns against targeted
persons. Thus, in Kaplan v Go Daddy Group,76 a customer dissatisfied with his
Hunter
Holden
car
started
a
blog
website
provocatively
called
“www.hunterholdensucks.com” inviting others to share their comments about
76
[2005] NSWSC 636.
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