Websites Immune from Commenter "Cyber-Libel"

Citing the Communications Decency Act, U.S. District Court Judge Louis Guirola, Jr. in the Southern District of Mississippi has ruled that websites are immune from liability to claims of defamation arising from commenters' inputs.

"Persons who claim that they were harmed by a website's publication of user-generated content may sue the third-party user who generated that content, but they may not sue the interactive computer service that enabled the third-party user to publish the content online," Guirola wrote.

"Thus, an interactive computer service is entitled to immunity as long as it did not create or author the particular information at issue."

Good! Some commenters are real douches. They remind me of this fat kid I knew in grade school who used to put boogers on kids' backs when they were in front of him in the lunch line. Undoubtedly, there are some douches putting boogers in comment threads.