Three men
sought €69,000 in damages when the a Wikipedia entry identified
them as gay activists. A French court ruled, though, that the
company that publishes the encyclopaedia cannot be held liable for
user contributions. The ruling afforded Wikimedia the same
protection enjoyed by ISPs.
“Website hosts cannot be liable under civil law because of
information stored on them if they do not in fact know of their
illicit nature,” said French judge Emmanuel Binoche in his ruling,
according to press reports.
Binoche said that a 2004 French law LCEN (Loi pour la confiance
dans l’économie numérique) exonerated the company. He said that he
had taken into account the fact that the articles in question had
been censored quickly after Wikimedia was informed of it.
The judge said that website hosts were not under any legal
obligation to investigate or monitor the information which is
published through them.
The court made no ruling on whether the statements were of
themselves defamatory.
The three men had demanded that Wikimedia identify the anonymous
contributor who posted the article, but the court disagreed.
The men claimed that they had written Wikimedia an email
demanding that the remarks be taken down, but Wikimedia denied
having received it. The judge found that the material was removed
quickly enough once the company received notice of it.
"The decision is very clear and we appreciate the fact the court
acknowledges our role as an internet host, rather than an editor,"
said Wikimedia Foundation chair Florence Devouard, according to
press reports.
