[Erosion of ISP liability-freedom]: schoolscandals.com bullied into closure

Major Variola (ret) mv at cdc.gov
Fri Apr 25 11:26:47 PDT 2003


                     Student Insult Web Site Closed
                       Operators blame public outcry over postings of
crude, malicious rumors.

                     By Erika Hayasaki, Times Staff Writer

                     A Web site that published crude and malicious
rumors about Southern
                     California middle and high school students was shut
down Thursday after a
                     public outcry from parents and students.
Schoolscandals.com, a 3-year-old
                     Web site run by Western Applications, a
Nevada-based corporation, had
                     featured links for chat rooms about nearly 100
Southern California middle
                     and high schools with postings referring to
students as "whores," "sluts" and
                     "losers." Those chat rooms are now closed, and a
message reads that the
                     bulletin board has been suspended "until some
method could be devised to
                     control the content on the forum There is nothing
any of us can do about it.
                     We have no money, so we have no power." Ken Tennen,
a West Hills
                     attorney who represents the Web site owners, did
not return telephone calls
                     Thursday, although he told The Times last week that
those who were calling
                     for the site to be shut down were trying to
"silence free speech." Ray Lopez,
                     producer of the "John and Ken Show" on KFI-AM (640)
radio, said they
                     first aired a segment about the Web site last week
after reading about it in
                     The Times, and received hundreds of e-mails and
telephone calls from angry
                     students and parents. "High school students are
really insecure to begin with,
                     and something just needed to be done about this,"
Lopez said. One woman,
                     whose son attends a Las Virgenes School District
school and who had
                     counseling after being ridiculed on the site, said
she was thrilled that it was
                     shut down. "I am glad the Web site is over and [my
son] is glad it's done,"
                     she said. "He doesn't want to be hurt anymore, and
he doesn't want other
                     kids to be hurt." The message now on the site
complains about the radio
                     station's campaign against it. A 1996 federal law
protects many Internet
                     service providers from lawsuits about their
content. Only those sites that
                     hold the right to create and edit material on their
sites can be held liable for
                     content, said Mark Radcliffe, a cyberspace and new
media law attorney.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-scandal25apr25,1,1974090.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dcalifornia

-----
"Montag, why do you burn books ?"
"It's a job like any other, pay is good and there is a lot of variety".
-F451





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