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| Calif. court: websites not liable for libel in third-party postings | |
| 2006-11-21 | |
Some of the Internet's biggest names, including Amazon.com, America Online Inc., EBay Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., took the defendant's side out of concern a ruling against her would expose them to liability. In reversing an appellate court's decision, the state Supreme Court ruled that the Communications Decency Act of 1996 provides broad immunity from defamation lawsuits for people who publish information on the Internet that was gathered from another source. "The prospect of blanket immunity for those who intentionally redistribute defamatory statements on the Internet has disturbing implications," Associate Justice Carol Corrigan wrote in the majority opinion. "Nevertheless ... statutory immunity serves to protect online freedom of expression and to encourage self-regulation, as Congress intended." Unless the U.S. Congress revises the existing law, people who claim they were defamed in an Internet posting can only seek damages from the original source of the statement, the court ruled. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 LLL included, the day we crack down on people posting third-party information (usually via direct quotation or URL link online) is the day free speech dies. The internet (even with Kos et al) is the last final free frontier for speech, in my book. Of course, I was hoping to hold Fred and the mods accountable for posting all the trolls we've received lately (/sarcasm). |
| Posted by: BA 2006-11-21 11:51 |
| #1 I'd read the fine print on this - it IS out of a California court. Make sure it doesn't only protect Tranzi/LLL bloggers. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2006-11-21 08:04 |