Source: http://bloglawblog.com/blog/?cat=501
Timestamp: 2018-09-26 11:08:52
Document Index: 609984349

Matched Legal Cases: ['§230', '§230', '§230', '§230', '§230', '§230', '§230', '§230', '§ 230', '§ 230', '§230', '§230', '§230']

safe harbor / §230 « Blog Law Blog
Archive for the ‘safe harbor / §230’ Category
A student of mine pointed out to me that ABC’s 20/20 news magazine did a piece on Sarah Jones, the Cincinnati Bengal cheerleader and Kentucky high school teacher who was wildly defamed on TheDirty.com and sued. That case is still unresolved. But the 20/20 piece is worth watching for no other reason than to be able to see Nik Richie answering questions.
If you are already happily ignorant of TheDirty.com, you should know that it’s a blog that posts photos of random people – often unknown, average people – and then attributes to them various sexual acts, sexually transmitted diseases, and crimes. It also commonly includes withering exegeses on these persons’ physical traits laced with profane invective.
The following, posted under a snapshot of a smiling college-aged girl, who was hugging a friend, is typical:
Nik Richie is the guy who makes all this possible. In the 20/20 interview, you can see that Richie is not only devoid of of conscience, but he is also megalomaniacal. In the interview Richie compares himself to – wait, are you sitting down? – Mark Zuckerberg.
You could sell Starbucks, and it’s the same, it’s the same thing. If it’s so terrible, why am I so demanded? Why am I a blogstar, as I call it? I’m pretty much a rockstar of the internet generation. … Look at Mark Zuckerberg. It’s the new wave of cool, hip, new celebrities. Internet celebrity. I’m in that realm with the Perez Hiltons, the Mark Zuckerbergs. You don’t have to be a computer nerd to be cool.
Whoa. First of all, Perez Hilton built up his following by constructing a personality people found compelling. And Mark Zuckerberg? Mark Zuckerberg not a “computer nerd”? I’ve made fun of Facebook, but let’s face it, Mark Zuckerberg is a serious geek. Zuckerberg has real geek chops – mathmatics, algorithms, coding, stuff like that. I take it, however, from his comments, that Richie doesn’t. That means that the only thing Richie has really brought to the table, that gives him his salient entrepreneurial advantage, is sociopathy.
That fits Nik Richie to T, except that TheDirty.com is not unique in the same way Righthaven is. And Steve Gibson is actually a smart guy. I see no indication of that with Richie.
Tags: Nik Richie, Sarah Jones, TheDirty.com
Posted in anonymity, defamation, safe harbor / §230 | Comments Off
UK soccer star and super-injunction taker-outer, Ryan Griggs (Photo: Allison Pasciuto, CC-BY 2.0)
Tags: Europe, Google, Imogen Thomas, Ryan Griggs, sports, superinjunction, United Kingdom
Posted in anonymity, censorship, chilling, defamation, Europe, First Amendment, freedom of expression, Google, international, lawsuits against bloggers, microblogging, press freedom, safe harbor / §230 | Comments Off
Sarah Jones Wins Early Motion Against TheDirty.com
Eric Goldman on Technology & Marketing Law Blog writes about a recent decision in the case of a school teacher and NFL cheerleader against about the meanest blog ever to sail the cyberseas: Jones v. Dirty World Entertainment, 2:09-cv-00219-WOB (N.D. Ky. Jan. 21, 2011).
Jones defeated The Dirty’s §230 safe-harbor defense at the earliest opportunity The Dirty had to bring it up, a motion to dismiss based on the pleadings. But the defense isn’t dead. Now the parties will go through the discovery process – producing documents, undergoing depositions – and we’ll see whether Jones can defeat the §230 defense on the facts.
Goldman doesn’t seem bullish on Jones’ long-term prospects. “Based on what I saw in this ruling, thedirty.com’s editorial contribution beyond the user-submitted content appears to be minimal and probably legally inconsequential,” Goldman writes.
Tags: Sarah Jones, TheDirty, TheDirty.com
Posted in defamation, employment, harassment, lawsuits against bloggers, safe harbor / §230 | 1 Comment »
The Harvard Journal of Law & Technology has published Free Speech Unmoored in Copyright’s Safe Harbor: Chilling Effects of the DMCA on the First Amendment [pdf] by Wendy Seltzer, a fellow with Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University.
When non-infringing speech is taken down, not only does its poster lose an opportunity to reach an audience, the public loses the benefit of hearing that lawful speech in the marketplace of ideas. Yet under the DMCA’s pressure, the poster’s private incentive to counter-notify and the host’s incentives to support challenged speech are often insufficient to support an optimal communication environment for the public. Instead, this set of incentives produces a blander, but not significantly less copyright infringing, information space.
Copyright claimants assert that the expedited process of the DMCA is critical to suppress infringement in the highly networked digital world. While many instances of infringement are properly targeted for takedown under the DMCA, I argue that the accuracy of some takedowns does not excuse a careful examination of the rate and costs of error. I therefore recommend changes to the law to reduce the error, balancing speech protection and copyright.
Part I surveys the legal, economic, and architectural sources of the DMCA’s chilling effects on speech. Part II then examines the First Amendment doctrines that should guide lawmaking, with critique of copyright’s place in speech law. Part III reviews the history and mechanics of the DMCA and provides examples of chilled speech and a few instances of limited warming. Finally, Part IV engages current policy debates and proposes reform to protect online speech better.
Tags: takedowns, Wendy Seltzer
Posted in analogy/relation to paper press, censorship, chilling, copyright, DMCA, elections, First Amendment, freedom of expression, intellectual property, legislation and regulation, litigation costs, safe harbor / §230, scholarship | 1 Comment »
The High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law is hosting a fantastic conference on March 4, 2011 about § 230, the safe harbor that shields online content providers from liability for defamation posted by users. It’s one of the most important legal aspects of blogging, and the Santa Clara event, called 47 U.S.C. § 230: a 15 Year Retrospective, offers a spectacular lineup of speakers. Look at this:
Tags: California, cle, Santa Clara Law
Posted in California, defamation, events / upcoming / conferences / calendar, legislation and regulation, safe harbor / §230, scholarship, telecom law | 2 Comments »
Mike Masnick profiles some Section 230 cases that are important for bloggers:
Posted in defamation, First Amendment, freedom of expression, integrity of content, lawsuits against bloggers, press freedom, safe harbor / §230, telecom law | Comments Off
Professor Rebecca Tushnet of the Georgetown University Law Center has posted to SSRN Attention Must Be Paid: Commercial Speech, User-Generated Ads, and the Challenge of Regulation on SSRN. The paper is being published by the Buffalo Law Review. Cite: 58 Buffalo Law Review 721 (2010)
Tags: Rebecca Tushnet, SSRN
Posted in endorsements, First Amendment, freedom of expression, FTC / advertising law, safe harbor / §230, scholarship | Comments Off