Alameda Superior Court Judge James A Richman has ruled that an
individual who posts a statement made by another person on an
internet newsgroup cannot be held personally liable for the
statement. The ruling resulted in the dismissal of a defamation
case against Ilena Rosenthal, Director of the Humantics Foundation
in San Diego, a breast implant awareness organisation.
In the Californian case, several of the allegedly defamatory
statements were found to be “expressions of subjective judgement”
rather than statements of fact. However, the judge conceded that
one of the statements may have been defamatory in nature. It had
been written by someone else, so Rosenthal was only responsible for
re-posting it on the internet newsgroup. This gave her immunity
from a defamation action under US federal laws that state that a
person who uses an interactive computer service is not treated as
the publisher of a statement by a third party.
Lee Tien, Senior Staff Attorney for the internet civil liberties
organisation the Electronic Frontier Foundation said:
“... Congress tried to protect free speech
on the internet from chilling threats of costly litigation. This
decision will help achieve that goal and marks a solid victory for
free expression. Internet speech would be stifled if individuals
could be found liable for the defamatory statements of others."
