Friday, June 02, 2006

Blogger not liable for libelous comments

Federal law protects bloggers from libel lawsuits based on comments posted anonymously to their blogs, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled this week.

According to a report on Law.com, U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell ruled that the Communications Decency Act protects blogger Tucker Max against a libel suit filed by Anthony DiMeo III, a Philadelphia publicist. DeMeo sued Max after anonymous posters used Max's site to criticize DiMeo when a party he organized ran into problems.

But Dalzell concluded that Section 230 of the CDA was enacted to provide immunity from libel suits for Internet providers -- including bloggers. This is so, Dalzell ruled, even if the blogger admits he excercises some editorial control over the anonymous postings.

Text of the opinion is here.

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