Judge Tosses Wikipedia Defamation Suit

Judge says site isn't responsible for user-generated content
By Sam Biddle,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 15, 2008 7:20 AM CDT
Judge Tosses Wikipedia Defamation Suit
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, answers a question during an interview. A judge has thrown out charges of defamation against Wikipedia.   (AP Photo)

A judge has thrown out a defamation suit against Wikipedia, upholding the principle that a website isn't responsible for user-generated content, Ars Technica reports. In the lawsuit, a literary agent charged that her Wikipedia entry damaged her reputation because it included nasty comments from bloggers and from a website that ranked her among the nation's worst agents.

The judge sided with Wikipedia, largely because the Communications Decency Act states that “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
(More internet stories.)

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