The case of “Cubby vs. Compuserve” established legal liability for websites. Here at NewsLanc, every post is read by the staff before it is posted, and consequently, NewsLanc has publisher’s liability. That is, if one of NewsLanc’s contributors libels someone, that person can sue NewsLanc.
Comments at LancasterOnline are filtered for crude words, with sometimes strange results. Instead of “assets and liabilities”, for instance, the forum will post “{profanity!} and liabilities”. However, because the TalkBack forum is unmoderated, the law says they aren’t responsible for defamatory content. They have common carrier liability. It’d be like trying to sue Verizon because someone used a telephone to defame you.
The software at LancasterOnline allows you to report objectionable posts. If you do that, LancasterOnline can address the issue of people failing to follow the forum rules – but the safe thing for them to do in case someone is engaging in libel is to delete all the posts by the offending user, and set that username to a “not allowed to post” status.
Editor’s comment: We’ll risk liability for the sake of decency. In defense of the Lancaster Newspapers, at NewsLanc the publisher is the one to review comments before posting. A mistake is less likely.
