The California Supreme Court has ruled that bloggers and website owners cannot be sued for posting libelous or defamatory comments written by third parties, The court said only the original authors of comments published online can be sued.
According to legal analysts, USA Today’s Laura Parker reports that the 34-page decision, issued November 20, 2006, is significant because it brings California in line with other court rulings across the nation that have upheld the 1996 federal Communications Decency Act (Title V of the Telecommunications Actrof 1996), which protects website owners from legal liability in libel or defamation lawsuits. Section 230 of the Act declared that operators of Internet services were not to be construed as publishers (and thus legally liable for the words of third parties who use their services).
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