Forum and Blog Liability

JN - Essen.  Bloggers and other web site operators offering discussion forums may be liable for content posted by visitors pursuant to a new judgment from the Hamburg district court, Landgericht Hamburg, docket no. 324 O 721/05. As reported by Heise on December 5, 2005, the court confirmed a previously issued preliminary injunction which held that Heise, a well-known German Internet news service, had to stop forum postings by visitors calling for a denial-of-service attack on Universal Boards. Although Heise removed the infringing postings promptly upon notice, the court held that Heise was liable for the content as it could feasibly screen postings manually or technically for illegal content before its publication. While the written grounds for the decision have not yet been published, commentors argue that the ruling violates the express standard in §11 of the German teleservices statute, Teledienstgesetz. The statute exempts web site operators from liability when they lack actual knowledge of the infringing content and immediately remove such content upon obtaining knowledge thereof. Others suggest that forums ought to provide the same protections found in chat rooms that automatically screen some content. German American Law Journal :: Washington USA