Is Passing on Third party Emails Defamation?

Ever get one of those emails from a friend making fun of someone or a business? If its funny or juicy enough, many of us can't wait to pass it on- well rest easy because the 9th Circuit Court's jurisdiction- (Hawaii, Alaska, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana) the US Court of Appeals ruled that someone just passing on an email accusing someone else of a crime was not guilty of defamation.

While this ruling got plenty of misplaced attention when someone (erroneously) interpreted it to mean bloggers could libel anyone they wanted, it was still an important statement about the liability of third party publishing done online. Now, the US Supreme Court has declined to hear the case, meaning that the Appeals Court ruling stands, and third parties are free of libel or defamation claims for items written by others.

While I doubt it will stop people from trying to file lawsuits for third party comments on sites (which we've been threatened with way too many times) at least it gives people a clear ruling they can point to in telling those people to go away.

Of course a different Circuit Court could come to a different conclusion in the future. This is called a "split in the circuits." If that happens the Supreme Court very well might hear the later case in order to resolve the split. Stay tuned.