CNET Offers Suggestions on How to Avoid Being Sued Over Your Site
From the Citizen Media Law Project...
CNET collaborated with Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation to come up with the helpful list 9 Fun Ways Web 2.o Startups Can Commit Legal Suicide. It includes some important pointers about managing users' private data, a reminder to startups to designate a copyright agent for DMCA takedown notices, and a word of caution for websites about expanding into print:
Thanks to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, you're protected from libel suits filed against you if your users write disparaging comments about other people or services on your site. That's how ZocDoc, a new Yelp-like service for finding doctors, can exist without being sued into the ground. But if you print out your user reviews, this no longer applies. So be careful if your customers or users ask for it.
We will be addressing many of the issues covered in the CNET piece in our forthcoming Legal Guide, and in the future we hope to take on cases involving some of these novel legal issues.
- comment -
For more on the regulation of citizen journalism, visit the Citizen Media Law Project blog.
CNET collaborated with Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation to come up with the helpful list 9 Fun Ways Web 2.o Startups Can Commit Legal Suicide. It includes some important pointers about managing users' private data, a reminder to startups to designate a copyright agent for DMCA takedown notices, and a word of caution for websites about expanding into print:
Thanks to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, you're protected from libel suits filed against you if your users write disparaging comments about other people or services on your site. That's how ZocDoc, a new Yelp-like service for finding doctors, can exist without being sued into the ground. But if you print out your user reviews, this no longer applies. So be careful if your customers or users ask for it.
We will be addressing many of the issues covered in the CNET piece in our forthcoming Legal Guide, and in the future we hope to take on cases involving some of these novel legal issues.
- comment -
For more on the regulation of citizen journalism, visit the Citizen Media Law Project blog.