Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Adam Wins... A Free Lesson In How Section 230 Protects Service Providers

800notes is one of those sites that gets even more bogus legal threats than we are. The site, to track their users and to discuss possible telemarketing recently received a threat by an attorney, Joel Hirschhorn, what a man named Adam Meyer, who sold some kind of "Adam Wins" sports betting business. Not surprisingly, the 800Notes page "Adam Wins" has a number of comments, many of them from people who are not fans of Adam or his telemarketing. Adam 's lawyer, stag horn, the site mistakenly 800Notes threatened with defamation for comments on this site. Of course, in both the statute and defined in case law, 800Notes is protected from liability for the comments of users thanks to both Section 230 of the CDA and common sense, who 's responsible for statements.

800Notes "operator, Julia Forte, who 's through this many times before, responded to a quick primer on the law that you think, knowing he would see would Hirschhorn as he' sa lawyer and a proud, past president of the "First Amendment Lawyers Association. "Forte, in their e-mail, also pointed out that if Hirschhorn decided to sue, that 'will fight back to win, is, and you are responsible for our attorney fees 800Notes. "Hirschhorn responded scornfully Forte, remarkable:" I am confident with your attitude, you end your class must be from a Third World law degree .... No lawyer I know his worth / her weight would ever guarantee a win (which you have just done), as I have in my 43 years as a lawyer have learned a lot too many variables. "

Paul Levy, then what 800Notes Hirschhorn, explain to him the law, ... Hirschhorn abruptly just hang on to him:
I then called Hirschhorn myself to try to discuss the law with him and to give him the names of cases from both the Florida Supreme Court and federal trial and appellate courts in Florida that support the immunity of Forte's company; I also hoped to explain the Dendrite process to him so that, assuming he could prove falsity and damages, he could pursue the anonymous posters if that was his client's choice. Hirschhorn bragged that he is not just a member but the founder of the First Amendment Lawyers Association, but acknowledged that he himself did not know anything about the law in this area; instead, he said, he hires others who know the law to help him. But when I suggested that Forte's confidence in the immunity of her hosting company is justified, and tried to explain where the law is on this topic, he abruptly hung up the phone.
Much more amusing, as Levy notes, is the fact that for all his talk about how Forte shouldn't have "guaranteed" a win, Hirschhorn's own website appears to promise that he will "acquit" everyone who cannot properly spell acquit, in that it is at aquitall.com. Again, as Levy notes this website:
[This domain] could be used as a claim that he receives more acquittals in criminal defense cases, all of his (it may also suggest that it is for customers who can 't spell appeal hopes) will be interpreted. The domain name may, in fact, promise against the Florida Bar 's to advertising regulations that prohibit lawyers results, the Florida Bar has such restrictions on Internet domain names used. Public Citizen has challenged these rules under the First Amendment, we have brought First Amendment challenges to similar advertising restrictions in other states like New York and Louisiana.
I have a feeling that Adam isn 't win this time.

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