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''Cubby, Inc. v. CompuServe Inc.'' was a 1991 court decision in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York which held that Internet service providers were subject to traditional defamation law for their hosted content.〔 The case resolved a claim of libel against CompuServe, an Internet service provider that hosted allegedly defamatory content in one of its forums. The case established a precedent for Internet service provider liability by applying defamation law, originally intended for hard copies of written works, to the Internet medium. The court held that although CompuServe did host defamatory content on its forums, CompuServe was merely a distributor, rather than a publisher, of the content. As a distributor, CompuServe could only be held liable for defamation if it knew, or had reason to know, of the defamatory nature of the content.〔Restatement (Second) of Torts § 581〕 As CompuServe had made no effort to review the large volume of content on its forums, it could not be held liable for the defamatory content. The application of traditional defamation law to the Internet context was soon to create controversy in ''Stratton Oakmont, Inc. v. Prodigy Services Co.'', in which a service provider was found liable for defamation on the grounds of good-faith attempts to filter objectionable content. In 1996, service providers were granted immunity as publishers and distributors by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act as an incentive to moderate posted material. == Facts == Cubby, Inc. and Robert Blanchard brought suit against CompuServe Inc. in the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York in 1991 for libel, business disparagement, and unfair competition. CompuServe, an Internet service provider, hosted an online news forum, the contents of which were generated by a contractor. Cameron Communications, Inc. agreed to "manage, review, create, delete, edit, and otherwise control the contents" of certain forums.〔 Cameron Communications then subcontracted the production of Rumorville USA, a daily newsletter. In April 1990, Rumorville published defamatory content about a competing online newsletter developed by Blanchard and Cubby, Inc. CompuServe did not dispute the defamatory nature of the content. However, no evidence presented during the trial demonstrated that CompuServe knew, or should have known, of the existence of the defamatory content. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cubby, Inc. v. CompuServe Inc.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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