Legal liability

One surprise for me in the Channel 11 piece was the depth of specific discussion of liability (link mine):

But what if someone posts something that's not true or is libelous? Federal law says the computer service provider isn't necessarily responsible--it's the person who wrote it.

Media lawyer Tom Williams says that limits the damages a defamed person might be able to win in litigation. He says the defendant "could just be anybody who might not have the assets to satisfy a judgment even if you sued and were successful in recovering a judgment."

   That would seem to protect Pegasus and other start-ups.

(I include the screenshot of Donte, because, where's he's been deadpan during the entire piece, he gets this great smirk right on cue during that last bit of voice-over, as if he were pleased at the pronouncement.)

While the point is a fair one, it's interesting that when I went to the Citizens Media Summit, the same legal facts were used to present the flip-side of this picture -- The possibility that a poster or commenter to a site who posted something both true and well-documented, could still be harmed irreparably by the expense of defending a frivolous libel suit.

A discussion of the law in this area can be found on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's website.