Re: IP: ISP not liable for customer's messages

[Rabid Wombat <wombat@mcfeely.bsfs.org>]

On Fri, 16 Oct 1998, Eric Cordian wrote:

> 
> > An appeals court in Florida has ruled against a woman who sued 
> > America Online because one of its customers, a convicted sex 
> > offender, used an AOL chat group to try to sell the woman's 
> > 11-year-old son a pornographic video. The court said that federal law 
> > protects online services from being held liable for the messages 
> > transmitted by their members sell the videotape of the boy. The 
> > defeated lawsuit, which is being appealed to the Supreme Court, tried 
> > to characterize America Online as "a home shopping network for 
> > pedophiles and child pornographers."  (AP/Washington Post 15 Oct 98)
> 
> As I recall, the individual was trying to sell a pornographic video
> featuring the woman's 11 year old son, which is another thing entirely.
> 

Not really. If the service providor is to be held accountable for what 
its members post/say/etc., they would have to monitor *all* traffic in 
order to police their members. In addition, even if the providor *were* 
monitoring, they can only be reactive - do you expect them to monitor and 
censor all traffic before releasing it?

Looks like an attempt to bring in a "deep pockets" defendant.

-r.w.