In Cornelius v. Deluca, 2009 WL 2568044 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 18, 2009), the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri granted defendants' Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss on the grounds that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 barred the plaintiffs' civil conspiracy claim. Plaintiffs, who manufacture nutraceuticals, filed a state court lawsuit against a number of defendants, including the operator of the www.bodybuilding.com website (the "Website"), which arose from the posting of allegedly libelous statements about the plaintiffs and their products on the Website.
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In the e-commerce or Internet law context, "Section 230" refers to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, a federal law which has significantly altered the traditional legal principles applied to defamation actions and others claims based upon content published on the Internet.
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In Atlantic Recording Corporation et al. v. Project Playlist, Inc. 2009 WL 766224 (S.D.N.Y.) six of the world's largest record companies sued the defendant, Project Playlist, Inc. (“Project Playlist”), for copyright infringement in the District Court for the Southern District of New York. (See Complaint for Damages and Injunctive Relief). The Plaintiffs' claims stemmed from Project Playlist's permitting users to create playlists through links to music featured on other websites without first obtaining the approval or licensing rights from the sites. Project Playlist moved for dismissal of the Plaintiffs’ state law claims for common law copyright infringement and unfair competition on the grounds that such claims were barred by the 47 U.S.C. § 230 (the Communications Decency Act, hereinafter the “Act”). The Court held that though Project Playlist was an Internet service provider under the Act, it was excluded from the statutory immunity afforded by Section 230(c)(2) because the Plaintiffs' claims arose from state intellectual property law and fell under the exception set forth in Section 230(e)(2).
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On February 10, 2009, the United States District for the District of
Columbia dismissed the defamation complaint of the man who posted a
YouTube video alleging that he used cocaine with, and performed a sex
act on, then-state senator Barack Obama. The matter came before the
court on the plaintiff's motion to compel information identifying the
individuals who posted anonymous responses to the video in which they
alleged that the plaintiff was lying about his allegations and was
actually a patient in a mental hospital at the time that he claimed to
have encountered now-President Obama. The court rejected the
plaintiff's attempt to compel disclosure of the identities of the three
anonymous posters and dismissed his complaint.
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