A controversial legal ruling could end up making the Internet the easiest
medium to censor in Britain—and might force some websites to seek hosts
overseas. Last month, physicist Laurence Godfrey sued the service provider Demon
Internet over its role in hosting defamatory comments about him on a newsgroup.
Although the case was settled out of court, a legal decision made before the
settlement has British ISPs worried.
The Defamation Act 1996 normally gives ISPs the same protection as a
telephone company: they are seen as a “common carrier”, bearing no liability for
the messages that pass through their networks.…
