Do The New SEC Rules On Linking Violate Section 230 Safe Harbors?

from the maybe-so... dept

Eric Goldman has submitted comments to the SEC explaining how its recent guidelines concerning the liability for companies based on links on their websites most likely violates the safe harbor provisions in Section 230 of the CDA. Section 230, as we've discussed over and over again, provides a clear safe harbor to protect third parties from liability for the actions of others. While we personally think it should just be common sense that third parties shouldn't be liable for the actions of others, it's been clear for way too long that common sense isn't really all that common.

In this case, the SEC indicated that some companies may be liable for content on third party sites that they link to, if the link gives the impression that the company has approved or endorsed the info. As Goldman points out, this appears to be in violation of the safe harbors, as no one should be liable for content they have no control over -- even if they indicate they might endorse that content.

Filed Under: liability, linking, sec, section 230

Canadian Court Rules That Linking To Defamatory Articles Isn't Defamatory

from the victory-for-free-speech-online dept

You may recall the story of Wayne Crookes, a Canadian businessman who is active in the Green Party in Canada. In 2007, he sued Google, Yahoo, Myspace, Wikipedia and some other sites, claiming that all were liable for content that he found defamatory. It's somewhat interesting to try to follow the trail of what the actual libel is -- as many of the lawsuits for libel are focused on stories about (you guessed it) him filing for libel lawsuits (which certainly appears to be true, rather than libelous). With at least some of those lawsuits, the Canadian Supreme Court tossed them out, though over jurisdiction issues, rather than on the merits of the case.

In one case, Crookes sued the website P2PNet for just linking to the material that Crookes found libelous. It seemed like a huge stretch to say that merely linking to content (even if you grant that it was libelous) is also libel. And, the good news is that a court has now agreed. It has sided with Jon Newton, the operator of P2PNet in noting that simply linking to libelous material is not, in itself, libelous. The ruling does note that if the link text had been libelous, that might be a different story -- but just linking to the text as part of a discussion about the lawsuits is hardly libelous. This is definitely a huge win for free speech in Canada -- though, Canada could take a big step forward in updating its defamation laws to make it clear that the liability for libel should be on those who actually were libelous, rather than those who host it or point to it.

Filed Under: canada, defamation, free speech, jon newton, libel, linking, p2pnet, wayne crookes

Is Embedding Infringement? MPAA Sues Two Sites

from the we-may-find-out dept

While we still need to wait for the end result of the YouTube/Viacom case to learn whether hosting infringing videos is infringement itself, there's another open question about whether or not linking to or embedding infringing videos is also infringing. It seems difficult to understand how it could be infringing, as it's no different than pointing someone to freely available content (and, technically, linking and embedding are no different at all -- it's just some HTML). The person (or computer) doing the linking or embedding has no idea whether the content being linked or embedded is infringing -- and it seems reasonable to believe that if it's available online, there's nothing wrong with linking to it.

Yet, here we have the MPAA suing two sites that both link to and embed various movies. The two sites in question, FOMD (Found Online Movie Database) and MovieRumor, don't host the movies themselves. They merely point people to various movies that are publicly available online. It would seem like a rather drastic stretch of copyright law to claim that is also infringement, but don't be too surprised at how this will be argued. The MPAA will play on emotional, rather than rational, arguments -- and it may actually work, given some similar cases in the past.

Filed Under: copyright, embedding, fair use, legal issues, linking
Companies: fomd, movierumor, mpaa

MPAA Gets Two More Sites To Settle For Merely Linking To Infringing Content

from the inducement? dept

The MPAA has been aggressively suing websites that merely link to infringing content claiming that linking is "inducement" to infringe -- which appears to be an attempt to stretch the Supreme Court's Grokster decision beyond its intended meaning. However, when staring down the barrel of a big Hollywood Studio lawsuit, it's no surprise that some sites cave. The MPAA has happily announced that two more such lawsuits have been settled. These are actually consent judgments, meaning both sides agreement to the judgment, but also likely worked out a separate settlement. That way the MPAA gets to claim huge fines found in the judgment, but which the real settlement was probably much less.

Filed Under: copyright, inducement, linking, movies, mpaa
Companies: mpaa

Linking To Unauthorized Content Is Copyright Infringement In The UK?

from the don't-link-to-this-site dept

A website based in the UK that linked to unauthorized versions of films and TV shows has been apparently shut down and the site's creator has been arrested for "facilitation of copyright infringement." This must be something similar to "inducing infringement" which is against the law in the US (as per the Supreme Court -- not any written law as of yet). However, it does seem a little silly to go after this guy. As long as he wasn't hosting any of the content and merely linking to it, it's hard to see why he should be charged with anything. The people who are breaking the law are those who are actually uploading the content -- yet in this day and age where so many people seem to think that it's the easiest person or company to find that should be targeted, it's no surprise that it's being shut down, even as the actual infringing content is still just as available as it was before.

Filed Under: copyright, linking