To any of the sites that are carrying the pictures of the alleged victim in the Kobe Bryant case or linking to sites with the pictures, know that you’ve ID’ed the wrong person. The young woman has retained a lawyer and said lawyer will be comming after you.
Hat Tip: Right Wing News
That’s interesting. The article talks about taking the woman’s face and putting it on someone else’s body – which is disgusting for several reasons. But if a weblog simply re-broadcast information received from another site, they would likely not be liable thanks to the recent 9th Circuit decision reported by Wired News http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59424,00.html
What Jeff said.
Disseminating news is protected by the 1st Amendment even if the news turns out to be wrong. Indeed, news reportage is often wrong–the first rough draft of history, and all that.
I wouldn’t be so sure. The First Amendment certainly raises the bar on defamation cases, but it does not bar them altogether. Where the defendant acted with reckless disregard of the truth, the First Amendment provides no protection whatsoever.
The 9th Circuit case to which Jeff refers does seem to provide an absolute protection for “webmasters” under the CDA. This case was almost certainly decided incorrectly, so I would not count on having it stick. And that’s assuming you get sued in the 9th Circuit; otherwise it is not binding at all. As you can see on this map, Colorado is in the 10th Circuit, not the 9th.