California Court: ISP Not Responsible for Online Libel
Bob Egelco writes in The San Francisco Chronicle:
People who claim they were libeled on line can't sue the Internet service providers that carried the messages, the California Supreme Court ruled today.More here.
The unanimous ruling reversed an October 2003 decision by a state appellate court in San Francisco that would have held carriers like Google and Yahoo to the same legal standard as newspapers and book publishers. They can be sued for the contents of a libelous message if they knew, or had reason to know, that the message was defamatory and failed to remove it.
The state's high court said today that Internet service providers were immunized by a 1996 federal law that said providers of chat rooms or news groups are not considered the publishers of information furnished by others. That means they're not responsible for the content, even if they knew it was harmful, the court said.
posted by Fergie @ 11/20/2006 12:51:00 PM
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