In message <44130.1579053...@segfault.tristatelogic.com>, Ronald F. Guilmette <r...@tristatelogic.com> writes
>That comment, and that concern, certainly does not seem to apply in any >country in which either eBay or TripAdvisor operate. > >Do you folks on your side of the pond not receive eBay? Are you not able to >view Tripadvisor.Com? > >Here in this country (U.S.) there are actually -three- separate and clearly >discrenable legal protections that would cover and that do cover circumstances >like this. In no particular order, they are: > > (*) The First Amendment. that constrains the US Government as to what laws they pass ... it does not constrain corporate policy (so a bit of a red herring) of course there are constitutions in many countries in the RIPE region, but none (AFAIK) are quite as sweeping in this area > (*) 47 USC 230(c)(1) > > (*) 47 USC 230(c)(2)(B) these (which are the most interesting parts of the Communications Decency Act that did not get invalidated by the application of the First Amendment which swept away much of it) provide a safe harbour for the people operating platforms regarding what the users of those platforms say ... so yes this is very much on point within the EU (and the RIPE region is far bigger than that) there is NOT an equivalent regime -- there is a safe harbour (under the ECommerce Directive) for hosting companies but ONLY up to the point at which they have "actual knowledge" that material is problematic (eg that it is defamatory) after that they are on the hook if they fail to act appropriately companies such as EBay and TripAdvisor are well aware of this and operate their platforms accordingly -- so this means that problematic material will not be visible within the EU (and doubtless in other RIPE region countries) ... whether they remove it entirely (so that US residents miss out) I could not say, you'd need to ask each company individually as to how they configure their systems note that companies that operate solely in the USA can take some solace from the USA SPEECH Act (which addresses the issue of enforcing "foreign" libel judgments in the USA) but of course eBay etc operate in Europe as well --- and of course RIPE NCC is based in The Netherlands viz: failure to remove libels would be costly >The middle one is actually the first-order go-to provision for situations >like this, and provides for quick dismissal for any silly cases brought >against *me* for something that *you* have said on some discussion or >review web site that I just happen to provide electricity, connectivity, >and CPU cycles for. since I understand you to be in the USA, you're correct >One would hope that european law might have some counterpart for that, >but I confess that I really have no idea about that, one way or the other. basically not -- at least once there is "actual knowledge" please note IANAL, but I do follow these issues so the above is mainly correct :) -- richard Richard Clayton Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Benjamin Franklin 11 Nov 1755
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