http://caselaw.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=4th&navby=case&no=971523P Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 11:14:23 -0500 From: Patrick Carome <pcarome@WILMER.COM> Subject: Fourth Circuit Rules in AOL v. Zeran I want to bring to the attention of this group an important decision issued yesterday by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in a case that I argued on behalf of America Online, Inc. The Fourth Circuit affirmed the decision in Zeran v. America Online, Inc. that has been a frequent topic of discussion in this forum. In particular, the Fourth Circuit held that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. § 230) "plainly immunizes computer service providers like AOL from liability for information that originates with third parties." In an opinion written for a unanimous panel by Chief Judge Harvey Wilkinson, the court affirmed a ruling by the United States District Court for Eastern District of Virginia that is reported at 958 F. Supp. 1124 (1997). The case concerned the question of whether AOL may be liable for allegedly being unreasonably slow to remove a series of allegedly defamatory messages posted on AOL message boards by an unidentified third party. The Court of Appeals based its ruling on Section 230(c)(1), which states that "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." The Court of Appeals also rejected the argument that Section 230 should not apply in this case because the messages at issue had been posted before the statute was enacted.