Free for a Fee

WhitePages.com publishes white pages information (get it?). It obtained and published information from third parties that incorrectly listed Nasser’s phone number as a Comcast phone number. As a result, Nasser got a voluminous number of angry phone calls intended for Comcast.

Because the erroneous information came from third parties, WhitePages isn’t liable for it per 47 USC 230. The magistrate judge recognized this and recommended dismissal. In a surprise twist, the judge didn’t agree, saying that it would decide the Section 230 question only after closer factual review. Six months later, the judge came back to the magistrate’s result from almost a year ago: case dismissed per Section 230.

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The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/11/whitepages-gets-its-inevitable-section-230-win-nasser-v-whitepages.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.