p2pnet - rss feed: Heise liable for reader comments
p2p news / p2pnet: A court in Hamburg, Germany, has issued a temporary restraining order, "preventing heise online from publishing reader comments calling on others to overload a company’s server by massively downloading a program," states Heise, saying it will now be forced to monitor all comment and discussion forums.
"We will have to close forums if a few readers get out of hand, and we may not be able to offer any discussion platforms at all on controversial issues," declares editor-in-chief Christian Persson.
A script "designed to endanger" the operation of Universal Boards download services ran in a forum discussing the company’s business practices, says the story. Universal Boards demanded that Heise do something about it and the comments were subsequently deleted.
Heise quotes the court as saying it wasn’t acceptable that "people whose rights are violated have to come after you to get you to do something".
"The publishing house [Heise] argued that automatic filters have not proven to be successful, and manual checks of all of the more than 200,000 comments per month are simply not feasible, but these arguments did not convince the court," it says, adding that if the decision sets a precedent, "every provider who offers readers the possibility of posting comments without filters will be immediately liable for breaches of the law in those comments and can be sued".
Other forms of communication such as blogs, guest books, and even chat rooms are similarly threatened and according to Heise lawyer Joerg Heidrich, the ruling, "clearly contradicts the expressed will of the German parliament and of an EU directive stating that service providers are not obligated to monitor the information that they only transmit or store. In addition, the German Supreme Court also recently ruled that providers can only be held liable if there were reasonable ways of reviewing the content."
Also read:-
Heise - Court rules that Heise is immediately liable for reader comments, December 6, 2005
December 8th, 2005 at 12:12 am
So why is it that Hollywood can simply place a disclaimer on DVDs that absolves them of any liability that might stem from the comments or content of the disc, but web sites can be held liable? That’s just whack.
December 8th, 2005 at 2:29 am
Then a radio station is responsible for the comments of listeners who call? Then theaters are responsible for the contents movies? Then the organizer of a public meeting is responsible for what is said? So is the owner of the building where the meeting took place? Then schoolsare reponsible for what kids say in class? Then the Captain is responsible for what is said on the ship?
Doesn’t the Hamburg court remember history?
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
December 8th, 2005 at 12:26 pm
couldn’t agree more.
Raymond Blijd
http://www.fk2w.com
December 8th, 2005 at 4:40 pm
and don’t forget,
The courts are responsible for what is said in the courthouse?
Politicians are responsible for what constituents say?
Sports team owners are responsible for what players say?
Record campanies are responsible for what artists/performers say?
….
There are so many of these