At 11:45 AM -0700 4/26/01, Joe Wagner imposed structure on a stream
of electrons, yielding:
>From Bill Cole [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
>>>This is similar to what happened a few years ago with newsfeeds.
>>>The courts position was the same, "All or none." Either the ISP
>>>filters newsfeeds and becomes responsible for ALL posts on ALL
>>>groups or they don't filter any news and are not responsible for
>>>any posts on any groups.
>>
>>cite please. I try to keep up on such things (especially as regards
>>news) and know of no case that had that clear a distinction made.
>It wasn't news feeds per se but was news/discussion groups. From:
>http://www.jmls.edu/cyber/1997/reports/torts.html
>"[snip]The two major cases in this area are Cubby, Inc. v.
>Compuserve, Inc., 776 F. Supp. 135 (S.D.N.Y. 1991), and Stratton
>Oakmont, Inc. v. Prodigy Services Co., (N.Y. Sup. Ct. May 24, 1995),
>motion for renewal denied, 24 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1126, 1995 WL
>805178 (Dec. 11, 1995).
Discussion fora that are strictly the production of the provider (as
in those two cases) are radically different from newsgroups, which
(except for moderated groups) have no legally definable owner. You
cannot sue Fluffy.
There was a UK case last year about defamation which the defamed
party won against Demon Internet, but it seems to rely on areas of UK
law that differ greatly from US law, and even then Demon could have
avoided the case altogether if they had whacked the post in question
when asked to do so by the supposedly defamed person.
All of the largest news providers do SOME sort of filtering on the
feeds into their reader systems. As I said before, I don't believe
that there have been any cases which have drawn any standards
regarding news filtering.
Frankly, I think statements like the one I was responding to are
irresponsible. Even if one assumes that the Cubby and Stratton
Oakmont cases would be applied as precedent to news (dubious) they
don't support such a sharp line for what a news provider can do
safely.
--
Bill Cole
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Geek seeks work! For details see: http://scconsult.com/bill/resume.html
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