Federal Court Reaffirms Blogger Immunity from Comment Law Suits

The US Court of Appeals For the First Circuit has reaffirmed that the same broad protections that protect web sites also protect bloggers and message board operators from being sued for what their user’s posted.

“[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,” and that “[n]o cause of action may be brought and no liability may be imposed under any State or local law that is inconsistent with this section,” states, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

The court stated, “Congress intended that, within broad limits, message board operators would not be held responsible for the postings made by others on that board,” and added that allowing bloggers and message board operators to be sued for the statements of their respective users on their web sites would have an “obvious chilling effect” on free speech.

US Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 06-1826, Universal Communication Systems v. Lycos [PDF].

usrbingeek is a Commercial, Wedding, and Portrait Photographer in Vermont and is also a Global Admin on the WyldRyde IRC Network. WyldRyde offers a free chatroom that can be added to any web site or blog and is home to the Lockergnome Chat.