Web-hosting responsible for private content?
Photshopped nude photos of Stefi Graf may herald the death of private web fora and chat rooms if a recent case against Microsoft is any indication of future rulings.
After hearing about these photos on a web site administered by Microsoft Germany, Stefi Graf complained about the photos. Though the pictures were removed, Microsoft refused to sign an agreement that the pictures would not be posted again. After all, how could they sign that, unless they had admins specifically watching for that content? Graf took MS to court, and won.
While I agree that fake photos of celebrities could endanger their public status, I don’t believe content providers should be responsible for everything on their sites, especially if that content is in a private forum and not available to the public at large. Otherwise, court cases like this will influence web hosts to deny customers the right to secure directories, have private boards, or publish any other content in which simple seaching will not turn up red flags.
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