FeedFirst Amendment applies to bloggers
June 30, 2003 in Overset
Good news, via Wired:
/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.
Online free speech advocates praised the decision as a victory. The
ruling effectively differentiates conventional news media, which can
be sued relatively easily for libel, from certain forms of online
communication such as moderated e-mail lists. One implication is
that DIY publishers like bloggers cannot be sued as easily.
“One-way news publications have editors and fact-checkers, and
they’re not just selling information — they’re selling
reliability,” said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic
Frontier Foundation. “But on blogs or e-mail lists, people aren’t
necessarily selling anything, they’re just engaging in speech. That
freedom of speech wouldn’t exist if you were held liable for every
piece of information you cut, paste and forward.”
The court based its decision on a section of the 1996 Communications
Decency Act, or the CDA. That section states, “… 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.” Three cases since then — Zeran v.
AOL, Gentry v. eBay and Schneider v. Amazon — have granted immunity
to commercial online service providers.
Tuesday’s court ruling clarifies the reach of the immunity granted
by the CDA to cover noncommercial publishers like list-server
operators and others who take a personal role in deleting or
approving messages for online publication.
“Here, the court basically said that when it comes to Internet
publication, you can edit, pick and choose, and still be protected,”
said Cohn. /
While this ruling isn’t the law outside the Ninth Circuit, and the
Supreme Court can always rule otherwise, it’s good news because it could
provide direction to other circuits.
Thanks to Jeff Jarvis
