The Yale Law Journal Pocket Part: Imposing Tort Liability on Websites for Cyber- Harassment
posted by Yale Law Journal
Recent examples have brought the vexing problem of cyber-harassment to the public’s attention. Under § 230 of Title 47 of the U.S. Code, websites are not liable as publishers for the content on their sites so long as they are not involved in the creation of the objectionable content. Accordingly, much of the relevant scholarship has focused on repealing § 230 or imposing liability upon posters.
The immunity that website sponsors—the entities that own the domain name and control the activity on a website—have as publishers should not mean that they have no obligation whatsoever for the activity on their website. Website sponsors have a proprietary interest in their websites. Accordingly, as Nancy Kim argues in the latest edition of The Pocket Part, they should be subject to the same standard of conduct as other proprietors.
December 15, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Posted in: Law Rev (Yale), Law Rev Forum
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