Friday, October 2, 2009

Communications Decency Act Issues Raised in Recent Facebook Suit

Facebook is being sued for content it has posted according to an article in PC Mag.com.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2353659,00.asp


A comprehensive discussion of issues around the Communications Decency Act of 1996, Section 230, is located here:

http://www.cdt.org/publications/policyposts/2008/4


An excerpt from this article by the Center for Democracy & Technology states:

"The four amicus briefs [filed by the CDT] essentially all argue for the same thing: a continued reading of §230 in the spirit that Congress intended and that a multitude of courts have so far followed. Any departure would otherwise stifle the provision's purpose and undermine industry strides towards responsible self-regulation. In those briefs, CDT argues that "intermediaries" - ISPs, websites, and online service providers that enable other people - Internet users - to post content onto the Internet should not be held liable for the content posted. To hold intermediaries liable would greatly chill their willingness to host online content created by others. To use a simple example, if the YouTube.com video sharing website had to be legally responsible for the content of the tens or hundreds of thousands of new videos posted to it each day, the site could not possibly continue to operate as an open forum for users' video expression."

The Citizens Media Law Project also provides a comprehensive overview:

http://www.citmedialaw.org/section-230

And, another excellent discussion on David Johnson's blog

http://www.digitalmedialawyerblog.com/2009/09/lessons_from_batzel_v_smith_no.html

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