If a website links to another website, is it a publisher?

A physics professor at the University of North Dakota has filed a $50,000 libel lawsuit because a former student wrote an online article accusing him of being a pedophile and having odd sexual habits. He is suing the author and the Webmaster and editors of a site that linked to the article.

The professor, John L. Wagner, takes issue with an article titled "Kinky Torrid Romance by Randy Physics Professor," which appeared on a Web site called Undnews.com. The article was written by Glenda Miskin, who operates Undnews.com. She is also an editor for another site that linked to the story, Und-fraud.com...

Vivian Nelson, who runs Und-fraud.com and is named in the lawsuit, says she doesn't vouch for the validity of Ms. Miskin's story. "I put up links to U.S. News [& World Report]. That doesn't mean that I agree with everything they say. A link is a link. The reader should realize that they are being directed to someplace else."

Chronicle of Higher Education (January 19, 2001)

---

When must an internet provider reveal the name of a subscriber who operates a website? Is the internet provider a publisher?

Truth at ULM

Richard L. Baxter, vice president for external affairs at [theUniversity of Louisiana at Monroe], filed a motion in August asking the court to require the Internet company, Homestead Technologies Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif., to identify the professor. Mr. Baxter would not comment on the latest development, and his attorney did not return telephone calls from The Chronicle. But Mr. Baxter has previously indicated that he wants to learn the professor's name to file a slander-and-defamation lawsuit against the person.

The professor's lawyer, Mr. Rhymes, said that Mr. Baxter has not presented any evidence of damage or defamation to warrant a trial.

Chronicle of Higher Education (January 29, 2002)

---

Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act (47 U.S.C sec. 230):

No provider for user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider (sec. 230(c)(1))

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be liable on account of 'any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of 'objectionalbe material.

No cause of action may be brought and no liability may be imposed..that is inconsistent with this section.

School of Journalism and Communication