User postings and the law: a question of structure
A federal court in California has ruled against Roommate.com, stating the site violated federal and state housing laws with some of the services it provides. At issue is content posted not by the Web site's administrators, but by its users. The case creates a distinction between what sorts of user activity for which a website is and is not responsible.
A ruling by a federal court in a case involving an online roommate matching service will hamstring Web innovators, a civil liberties group argued this week in papers filed with the judicial panel.
In a "friend of the court" brief submitted Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals in California, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argued that "the ruling will inhibit technological developments because providers and users of interactive computer services will be discouraged from investing in creating important Internet features if they face the constant threat of litigation for customizing and facilitating access to third-party content."
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