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Did 'Roommates.com' Nix Consumer-Generated Content?

By Paul W. Garrity
June 26, 2008

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. '230) ('CDA') essentially gives Internet service providers immunity from liability for publishing false or defamatory material as long as that material was provided by another party.

The Roommates.com Case

In Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.com LLC, 521 F.3d 1157 (9th Cir. 2008), an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed an earlier ruling that a commercial roommate-matching service may be liable for violations of the Fair Housing Act because of the manner in which the site elicits information from prospective roommates. The Ninth Circuit, in the opinion, clearly enunciated that a site cannot participate in the development of violative material and still claim immunity under '230. The timing of this ruling coincides with an explosion in the use of consumer-generated content ('CGC') by advertisers on marketing Web sites.

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