GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - Can the owner be held liable for what is said on a messageboard?

Kinetik · 08-23-2002, 04:38 AM

Disclaimer: I?m not an attorney, I just do a lot of research on cyberlaw.

A message board owner isn?t liable for a 3rd party posting. However, you can?t encourage libel, nor can you ( the owner) post something defamatory. Exceptions to this rule are copyright violation, illegal material (underage porn pics), and privacy law compliance. If you have anything that violates those 3 things, you need to remove it ASAP. I think under the DMCA, you have to remove any copyright or IP infringements, given notice

The only good thing about the CDA (Communications Decency Act), was the immunity given to ISPs for 3rd party actions. Congress had a vested interest in promoting good behavior. Companies used to be afraid of monitoring their message boards, because of legal exposure. To address that, Congress added Section 230, which states: ? No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider. ?

Links:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/script...tle=47&sec=230
Full text of section 230

http://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/dldefam/archive.html
AOL won a series of cases, including appellate ones, courtesy of section 230. They list the cases on their legal website.

cases in particular:
Zeran v. Aol (famous), Blumenthal v. Drudge, Green v. AOL and Does 1 and 2, Does 1-30, et al. v. Franco Productions, et al. (about porn hosting)

http://www.phillipsnizer.com/int-defam.htm
A listing of current defamation cases. Quite a few of them deal with section 230.

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/p...332414,00.html
Attorney from Morrison Foerster (big law firm) answers the question: Are You Responsible for What People Say on Your Website?

08-23-2002, 04:38 AM
Kinetik Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 12	Disclaimer: I?m not an attorney, I just do a lot of research on cyberlaw. A message board owner isn?t liable for a 3rd party posting. However, you can?t encourage libel, nor can you ( the owner) post something defamatory. Exceptions to this rule are copyright violation, illegal material (underage porn pics), and privacy law compliance. If you have anything that violates those 3 things, you need to remove it ASAP. I think under the DMCA, you have to remove any copyright or IP infringements, given notice The only good thing about the CDA (Communications Decency Act), was the immunity given to ISPs for 3rd party actions. Congress had a vested interest in promoting good behavior. Companies used to be afraid of monitoring their message boards, because of legal exposure. To address that, Congress added Section 230, which states: ? No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider. ? Links: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/script...tle=47&sec=230 Full text of section 230 http://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/dldefam/archive.html AOL won a series of cases, including appellate ones, courtesy of section 230. They list the cases on their legal website. cases in particular: Zeran v. Aol (famous), Blumenthal v. Drudge, Green v. AOL and Does 1 and 2, Does 1-30, et al. v. Franco Productions, et al. (about porn hosting) http://www.phillipsnizer.com/int-defam.htm A listing of current defamation cases. Quite a few of them deal with section 230. http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/p...332414,00.html Attorney from Morrison Foerster (big law firm) answers the question: Are You Responsible for What People Say on Your Website?