| Those of you that are blog addicts are well aware of the issue of a blog's liability as well as "ownership" of comments, whether it be if a blog's owner is legally responsible for the content in the comments section, or it be Bill O'Reilly bloviating about the worst comments in a section and trying to paint the whole blog as extreme as those comments. Apparently, the concept of trying to silence a blog by going after the owners is still a fresh one, as the owners of the community blog iBrattleboro (Brattleboro, VT) are now being sued for libel, over some comments that someone posted there. Go below the jump for more. |
| iBrattleboro is one of those great community blogs. It's not just politics by any stretch of the imagination. It covers many aspects of the small city in southern Vermont: town news, arts and culture, business, education - the whole gamut of that vibrant community.
Apparently the libel hubbub stems from an allegation by a former executive director of Rescue, Inc. and organization that provides rescue services to the area's communities. As the Brattleboro Reformer is reporting:
In the suit, which was filed in Windham County Superior Court Nov. 16, Rescue volunteer Effie Mayhew alleges that David Dunn, who served as executive director until resigning earlier this month, and ibrattleboro owners Chris Grotke and Lise LePage committed libel and "intentional infliction of emotional distress."
The suit pertains to a Sept. 30 comment posted to the site by Dunn, who was responding both to a previous anonymous critique of his leadership style and a column Mayhew wrote in the Reformer. In the comment, Dunn accused Mayhew of conducting an adulterous affair on Rescue premises and said that others who had signed a petition requesting his resignation had engaged in similar behavior.
Did you get that? "The suit pertains to a Sept. 30 comment posted to the site by Dunn, who was responding both to a previous anonymous critique of his leadership style and a column Mayhew wrote in the Reformer." So based on one man's comment on the blog, the owners, Chris Grotke and Lise LePage now have to spend their time and money fighting off this lawsuit. Perhaps Dunn's comments could indeed make him responsible for libel. But to hold the blog's owners responsible is absolutely ridiculous.
It's really maddening, especially because at the bottom of the iBrattleboro site, there's this...
All information and opinions expressed on these pages are the responsibility of their respective owners, and not of iBrattleboro.com. iBrattleboro.com reserves the right to refuse publication of any story and to remove posted comments, as we see fit.
Apparently, that last part wasn't read by Mayhew. Her lawyer somehow thinks that Grotke and Page should have known better and taken the comments down on their own.
"They should have edited it out or e-mailed (Dunn) and said 'we can't publish it as it stands,'" Stone said. "I think their defense will be that they don't read prior to publishing, but I'm not sure that will be enough to avoid some degree of liability."
Smells funny to me. How about you? One thing that complicates this matter is that the legal matters regarding "new media and journalism" are still wading into uncharted territory in regards to liability, but the Communications Decency Act of 1996 seems to be pretty clear on this: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
Regardless of how the suit goes against Dunn, the one against iBrattleboro is the essence of vindictive frivolity. Please stop by iBrattleboro and offer some kind words of support to Grotke and Page, should you feel so inclined.
crossposted at Daily Kos and five before chaos, because the word needs to spread about this. A rec over at Kos would be helpful and appreciated. |
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