Legislative Initiatives Relating to the Standard of Care Issue

Some legislative bodies have taken action recently to help define the standard of care for digital defamation:

1. Uniform Defamation Act.

The February 6, 1992, draft of the Uniform Defamation Act, which ultimately was not approved by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, suggested that information retrieval and transmission services, including computer bulletin boards, should not be subject to liability as republishers:

Section 21. Information Retrieval Services. A library, archive, or similar information retrieval or transmission service providing directly or through electronic or other means access to information originally published by others is not subject to liability under Section 19 or 20 [relating to liability for republishing] and if the library, archive, or similar information retrieval or transmission service:

1. is not reasonably understood to assert in the normal course of its business the truthfulness of the information maintained or transmitted; or
2. takes reasonable steps to inform users that it does not assert the truthfulness of the information maintained or transmitted.

The new Uniform Retraction Act, which consists of a small subportion of the controversial and currently tabled Uniform Defamation Act, makes no reference to electronic information services.

2. Louisiana's Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, La. R.S. 51:1401 et seq.

This state statute confers an absolute privilege upon, among others, an owner of an electronic medium that disseminates misleading advertisements, provided that the owner is unaware that the advertisement is misleading, does not prepare the advertisement, and has no financial interest in the sale or distribution of the advertised product or service.

LINKS:

Digital Defamation: An Overview

Basic Elements of a Cause of Action for Defamation

The Standard of Care for Electronic Information Providers

Articles Concerning the Standard of Care for Defamation Generally

Procedural and Jurisdictional Issues