Dow Jones and Company Inc v Gutnick

The High Court of Australia considered an appeal by Dow Jones and Company Inc. against a decision of the Supreme Court of Victoria in a defamation proceeding brought by Mr Joseph Gutnick. Mr Gutnick alleged that he had been defamed by an article published on Dow Jones's website, which was accessible to users in Victoria. The core of the dispute concerned whether the publication of the defamatory material on the internet constituted publication in Victoria, thereby conferring jurisdiction on the Victorian courts.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the publication of defamatory material on a website accessible in Victoria constituted publication in Victoria for the purposes of Australian defamation law, and consequently, whether the Supreme Court of Victoria had jurisdiction to hear the matter. This involved determining the geographical location of publication in the context of internet communications and the application of the common law tort of defamation to such circumstances.

The High Court, by majority, held that publication of defamatory material occurs where the material is downloaded and read by the recipient. Applying this principle, the Court found that as Mr Gutnick had downloaded and read the article in Victoria, publication had occurred in Victoria, and therefore the Supreme Court of Victoria had jurisdiction. The Court reasoned that the internet is not a single entity but a network of interconnected computers, and a website is hosted on a server, but its content is transmitted to and accessed by users on their own computers. The tort of defamation is actionable upon publication, and the act of downloading and reading the article in Victoria satisfied this requirement.