Idea Lab

Court Dismisses Libel Lawsuit Against iBrattleboro

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

In a case we've been following closely at the Citizen Media Law Project, a Vermont judge has dismissed the libel lawsuit filed against Chris Grotke and Lise LePage, co-founders and owners of iBrattleboro.com, a widely acclaimed community journalism site based in Brattleboro, Vermont, ruling that Grotke and LePage are immune from liability under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ("CDA 230"). The lawsuit, which was filed by Effie Mayhew on November 16, 2007, alleges that David Dunn, the former executive director of Rescue Inc., an emergency medical services organization where Mayhew works as a volunteer, libeled her in a...

• March 20, 2008
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Primer on Immunity for User Content

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

As a lead up to the launch of the Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Guide in January, we are putting up longer, substantive blog posts on our project blog discussing various subjects covered in the legal guide. The first post in the series stems from a talk I gave at the Legal Risk Management in the Web 2.0 World conference in Washington, DC. As the token academic, I had the task of providing a general overview of the liability that publishers might face if they allow users to comment on or submit content to their sites. I adapted my...

• December 16, 2007
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