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Bloggers Immune From Suits Against Commenters

Posted by kdawson on from the common-carrier dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Suppose a commenter posts a libelous comment here at Slashdot. Can Slashdot and its owners be sued for defamation? A federal appeals court just held that no, they cannot. The court noted that a federal law was designed to ensure that 'within broad limits, message board operators would not be held responsible for the postings made by others on that board,' adding that, were the law otherwise, it would have an 'obvious chilling effect' on blogger speech."

1 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Re:will they then by ivanmarsh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I guess that depends on whether you're stating opinion or fact. Everyone is entitled to their opinion no matter how stupid it is.

    None of these cases will ever go anywhere.

    "I never made any claim that my blogg is a lagitimate source of factual material" case dismissed.
    If it works for Fox news it should certainly work for a blog.