Web Site Liability For Third Party Content

The question of when a website owner becomes liable for content posted by third parties has been around for some time. As far back as 1997, the Courts were already dealing with this issue (See Zeran v. AOL). In the past several months a number of new opinions on this issue have appeared. In May of this year, the 9th Circuit case Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com tackled the issue of whether an online roommate matching website should be held liable for violation of the federal housing discrimination laws, since certain postings discriminated against particular groups. The Court held that the website could be held liable because it used drop-down menus to limit users' choice as to the content of their listing. As a result, the safeharbor provisions of the Communications Deceny Act (CDA) did not apply. On the other hand, in March of this year, the 7th Circuit in Chicago Lawyer's Committee v. Craigslist found Craigslist immune under the CDA for user posted listings which likewise discriminated against certain groups. The distinction between the two rulings appears to be that once a website operator takes an active involvement in the generation of content (as was the case in the Fair Housing decision), the safeharbor provisions of the CDA no longer apply.