Bloggers, Email Lists, and Forums Less Likely to be Sued

[Brett_Tabke]

[wired.com...]

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors can't be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to do-it-yourself online publishers.

[NeedScripts]

WoW.. this is a big one..

I hope you guys still remember the case of the certain pet web site, where the discussion board owner was sued for some post and had to end up paying good amount of money and domain too(I think).

:) :)

NS

[rogerd]

< Igniting flamethrower... ;)>

This is really good news. A forum I run has occasionally had comments on semi-scam businesses, i.e., ones that don't break any laws but tend to prey on gullible people. I've never lost much sleep over the posts critical of these operations, but this is a welcome ruling.

[Chris_R]

I love the 9th circuit

Here is the link to the actual opinion in PDF format if anyone wants it:

[ca9.uscourts.gov...]

[Marketing Guy]

Agreed Roger - im in a similar situation! :)

Although did relish the thought of the ensuing arguements.... ;)

But at least now every person with an opinion can voice it without fear of opression.....uh...erm...any moderators looking for a job? ;)

Scott

[twright]

This has big implications for Public Relations professionals as well. In the past, it has been standard to send the legal team after a site that had false information - even if that information was printed somewhere else. This means that the PR professional will not have to create a beneficial relationship with the Blogger or Webmaster in order to counteract this type of thing - which is very good news for me!

[sajjid]

Goog news indeed because my forum always had posting which were on the edge

[Chris_R]

That is true "In 1997, the High Court [US Supreme Court] took up 28 cases from the 9th Circuit and reversed 27 of them -- nearly two-thirds of which were unanimous opinions."

[cfif.org...]

However - the supreme court only hears about 100 cases a year - and I don't see this being one of them, but I could be wrong...

<EDIT>

Those stats may be a little one sided :

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the lower courts in 75% of the cases it decided. The 9th Circuit was reversed 76% of the time, which is almost identical to the national average. In contrast, the 2d Circuit, the 3d Circuit (albeit in only one case) and the 11th Circuit were reversed 100% of the time; the 6th Circuit was reversed 88% of the time; and the 8th Circuit was reversed 80% of the time.

[aclj.org...]

</EDIT>