Blog Comments & Legal Liabilities

Are the comments others leave on your blog a legal liability?  This meme is making its way around the blogosphere (again), fueled by Aaron Wall’s recent legal spat with Traffic-Power over the comments on his blog.

I’m curious to see how this one develops. I *believe* the Communications Decency Act was passed to (among other things) protect online publishers from being held accountable for the actions of others -- at least that’s what one legal expert shared recently in a blogging policy discussion.  Here’s an excerpt from the act:

Section 230 of the act added valuable protection for online service providers and users from action against them for the actions of others, stating in part that "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". This portion of the Act remains in force, and enhances free speech by making it unnecessary for ISPs and other service providers to unduly restrict customers' actions for fear of being found legally liable for customers' conduct.

Comments

[Phil Gomes]

An excellent citation, though Dave Taylor and others have made the argument that, since the blogger in question was moderating comments (and thus can't be classified as a common carrier), there could be liability.

I look at it from a very different perspective, though. It seems to me that the core of media law is concerned about "prior restraint" and "chilling effects".

Fear of getting sued based on comments to a blog would exercise prior restraint on someone who is considering building an online community. This would have a chilling effect on an emerging and important form of free expression.

This suit will likely drop into the foul depths from whence it came. Then again, I can't always trust the courts to grok this kind of thing. YMMV.

[Will]

It seems to me that the core of media law is concerned about "prior restraint" and "chilling effects".

[David jagnos]

hi