Consumer anti-scam site, RipOffReport.com has been in court fighting “a defamation and trademark infringement complaint brought by Whitney Information Network, a company billing itself as offering education in real estate investing.” More on the story:
The court ruled that the federal Communications Decency Act protects site operators from liability for user comments–even when the company behind the sites has created tags for commenters to use to classify their posts. “The court finds that the mere fact that Xcentric provides categories from which a poster must make a selection in order to submit a report on the … website is not sufficient to treat defendants as information content providers,” wrote Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the Middle District of Florida, Fort Myers division.
While I find the idea deplorable that Whitney would waste the money on a suit like this, I like that this case law is now on the books.
