Big win for free speech online

The San Jose Mercury News reports on an important and common-sense ruling by the California Supreme Court: Justices hand victory to free speech online.

Legions of Web users and Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other major Internet providers dodged a legal morass Monday when the California Supreme Court ruled they cannot be sued for posting or distributing libelous material written by others.

In a 34-page ruling, the state's high court overturned a lower court decision that had stripped immunity against such lawsuits and alarmed free speech advocates who warned it could chill expression on the Internet.

The Supreme Court unanimously concluded that federal law is clear on insulating Internet providers and Web sites against lawsuits for the inflammatory statements of others. The ruling does not, however, protect the original authors of defamatory material. ...

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has discusses the ruling here, and the court's decision is here (PDF).

Meantime, a federal judge in U.S. District Court in Chicago has ruled that Craigslist is not responsible for openly discriminatory housing ads placed on its site by users. Another important victory for the online community.