On 8 May 2000, Anonymous wrote:
> On May 1, the US Supreme Court upheld (without comment) the NY State Court
> of of Appeals ruling in Lunney vs. Prodigy Services Co., 99-1430.
>
> Choice quote from the NY State ruling:
>
> "Prodigy was not a publisher of the e-mail transmitted through its system
> by a third party. ... We are unwilling to deny Prodigy the common-law
> qualified privilege accorded to telephone and telegraph companies. ... The
> public would not be well served by compelling an (internet service
> provider) to examine and screen millions of e-mail communications, on pain
> of liability for defamation."
>
> <http://www.theregister.co.uk/000501-000006.html>
>
> ("The appeal stemmed from a suit by a teenager against Prodigy Services
> Co. after an imposter opened email accounts in his name and sent vulgar
> bulletin board postings and threatening messages to a third party, who
> then filed a police complaint.")
>
> So, what *is* an "ISP"? Is it Joe Cypherpunk with a linux box and a cable
> modem? What if he has a handful of users? What if he runs an anonymous
> remailer?
>
> Perhaps it's wishful thinking on my part, but this would appear to be
> great news for US remops.
I've been saying this since the CDA originally passed. By the phrasing of
the law, remailers are an interactive computer service, and so the
operators are not responsible for content generated by third parties, for
purposes of the law. That is, the law pertains to harassing or obscene
messages. This will not protect you from claims of copyright infringment,
for example. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c104:S.652.ENR:
--
andy dustman | programmer/analyst | comstar.net, inc.
telephone: 770.485.6025 / 706.549.7689 | icq: 32922760 | pgp: 0xc72f3f1d
"Therefore, sweet knights, if you may doubt your strength or courage,
come no further, for death awaits you all, with nasty, big, pointy teeth!"
