Italian Court Rules Web Editors Not Responsible For Comments 72
itwbennett writes "Internet freedom got a boost Wednesday when Italy's highest court ruled that the editors of online publications can't be held legally responsible for defamatory comments posted by their readers. The judges said online publications could not be treated in the same way as traditional print media and could not be expected to exercise preventative editorial control over readers' comments."
Re:Sadly (Score:5, Insightful)
Sharpen your keyboards, ACs! (Score:5, Insightful)
Got my Nomex suit on, so let's go!
Re:On the other hand ... (Score:3, Insightful)
If everything has to go all the way to the court system, how can the society function?
Quite well, actually. It doesn't mean that every instance of something has to go to court, you have big decisions like Sony vs Betamax and then most variations are considered settled case law. There'll always be borderline cases but the contested areas get smaller and smaller. Both in common law and civil law systems you look to higher courts, past cases and similar cases in other jurisdictions and try to be consistent, even if you have different concepts of precedent. Editorial responsibility for comments posted online is typically such a discussion, it'll probably end up in some superior court somewhere and be settled, unless the politicians pass specific laws to make it perfectly clear.
A small, meaningless victory (Score:5, Insightful)
Italy still has strict limitations on free speech, this victory is but a drop in the ocean.