There is nothing surprising about Friday’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that Myspace is immune from a lawsuit brought by a parent of a sexually abused child. In Doe v. Myspace, Inc., the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Communications Deceny Act, 47 USC Sec 230 (”CDA”) bars claims against providers like Myspace for damages that arise out of publication by providers of content supplied to the provider. For law geeks keeping score at home, the Court relied on CDA Sec 230(e)(3).

This is the whole preemption thing again. At least this is true preemption that was clearly intended by Congress, rather than a political agenda being pushed by an out-of-control administration.

But that’s not as interesting to me as how this ruling shines a light on censorship by web 2.0 providers like Facebook and Myspace. The CDA protects publishers of content. So why would Facebook remove posts that were critical of Career Education Corp? Facebook couldn’t be required to answer to claims under the CDA. So what gives?

I can’t see any other explanation other than web 2.0 providers play a kind of 3-card Monte with censorship rules. When faced with a liability lawsuit, they rightfully raise the CDA as a complete defense. Fine. That’s how Congress wrote the law. While I have trouble with the result in Doe, it’s about personal beliefs and nothing relating to the correct interpretation of the CDA. But when other interests demand the removal of content–like unflattering posts–the provider should stick to the same position.

To be sure, I’m not a big fan of the CDA’s grant of wide immunity. In pre-web days, publishers like newspapers could be held to answer for harm caused by defamation if they recklessly published untrue information. Personally, I would prefer that model so that web providers take some responsibility for content. But maybe I’m misguided on this particular issue.

Interestingly, there may come a time down the road where web 2.0 providers’ inconsistent actions create a different set of problems. I can foresee that lawyers representing future Doe families will have new and interesting arguments to get around the CDA if Facebook censors for its friends but doesn’t take similar steps for trolling sexual predators. I realize this last thought might be a little obtuse. Apologies. Untangling it would only lead to a long and dense post that would surely bore you to tears. You can thank me for being a self-censoring law geek….

David Sugerman

This news account of a teenager’s serious injury at a North Portland Junkyard suggests that one or more participants didn’t get their stories straight. Were the teens working for the company, or were they merely operating the yard’s front-end loader and other heavy equipment without being paid on the payroll?

It doesn’t really matter. The account and various quotes provide another reminder that teenagers often fail to appreciate risk. That’s part of the reason why we have child labor laws. Children often can’t understand or fully appreciate the risk of injury from work.
Front-end loaders, car shredders and other large machines do amazing work. But safety isn’t something trusted to a teenager’s common sense. Seems like the owners of the yard have some explaining to do. It looks like these kids were engaged in child labor on the payroll, or they were working under the table. Neither possibility reflects well on the owner and manager of the yard.

Let’s at least hope that the injured teen heals fully and recovers his health.

David Sugerman