[LINK] Another Case on Internet Publishing Responsibility

[Jan Whitaker]

At 10:00 AM 22/11/2006, Roger Clarke wrote:
>A federal judge in U.S. District Court in Chicago has ruled that
>Craigslist is not responsible for openly discriminatory housing ads
>placed on its site by users. In the case of Chicago Lawyers' Committee
>for Civil Rights Under Law Inc. v. Craigslist Inc., No. 06C-0657 (N.D.
>Ill.), Judge Amy St. Eve upheld Craigslist's argument that it is not a
>"publisher" of housing ads, but merely a provider of online "interactive
>services," and therefore is not liable for the content of users' posts
>under the 1996 Communications Decency Act.

I would agree with this ruling. The person responsible for the 
discrimination is the person who placed the ad. As long as an online 
service does NOT assume copyright by licence of the writer, and 
therefore avoid liability for the text as well (that's why publishers 
insist on pretty clear evidence and assertion that the stuff provided 
by writers is checked, at least the good ones do), then the sole 
responsible party is the person who wrote it.

Why it would come under Communications Decency is beyond me. But it 
should come under a long standing legal concept of 
anti-discrimination in housing. That's from the Civil Rights Acts of 
the 1960s at least in the US! There should be action taken against 
the poster on that basis.

Jan


Jan Whitaker
JLWhitaker Associates, Melbourne Victoria
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
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'Seed planting is often the most important step. Without the seed, 
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