SPERO CANTON: Having concerns about who's watching who on the internet? Learn the privacy ins and outs, up next on Comcast Newsmakers.
FEMALE VOICE: Bringing you the news and information you need from the people making a difference, this is Comcast Newsmakers.
SPERO CANTON: Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the show. The internet provides convenience on all levels. But it can come with a long-term price. Here with tips on staying safe while you surf is Randy Rosenblum with FREIDIN · Dobrinsky. And thank you very much for joining us.
RANDY ROSENBLUM: Good morning.
SPERO CANTON: This is a brand new landscape. And I think that a lot of people are unaware of different types of rules and regulations concerning video or libel on the internet.
RANDY ROSENBLUM: It is new. I mean, there are some laws that have been on the books. And specifically, there's a federal law called the Communications Decency Act, which has been on the books for about a decade or so. And no one knows about it. But it's a law that basically says that online internet service providers, like Google, like Yahoo, like Alta Vista, that they are completely immunized for being sued for any content that is put on their site by a third party that was not created by them.
SPERO CANTON: So that means if someone decides to put an embarrassing type of video on the internet about me without my knowledge, they're not liable for any problems at all.
RANDY ROSENBLUM: They could be liable. The question is--would Yahoo be liable for example? So someone takes a video of you without your knowledge or permission. They post it on Yahoo. You call Yahoo and say, "Hey, Yahoo, this is not true. They didn't have permission to do this. I want you to take it down." Yahoo under this federal law does not have to take it down.
SPERO CANTON: What do they usually do?
RANDY ROSENBLUM: The answer is it depends. There are circumstances when these internet service providers will be benevolent and they will do that because they have an interest in furthering their own business to keep off material that people are saying is false and defamatory. So it is in their interest to remove it. But that doesn't mean they always do. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. And there have been lawsuits and cases decided where people have sued Yahoo, Google, other internet service providers. And they have lost their lawsuits because of this immunity.
SPERO CANTON: You know, in disseminating information, traditionally, you have gatekeepers that are out there at different newspapers, TV stations, radio stations that decide what's news. So now you have a new I guess generation of gatekeepers at these sites that decide what goes on, what stays off.
RANDY ROSENBLUM: Exactly, and with blogging and with different website and specialty sites and online dating, there's a whole world out there of opportunities for people to post information not only about themselves but about other people. And that causes this problem because these sites are so inundated and flooded with information that they can't possibly fact check everything that someone is putting on there.
SPERO CANTON: Well, what's the right of the individual whose I guess reputation is being defamed here?
RANDY ROSENBLUM: If an individual person has been defamed or they believe they have, the person who defamed you, the specific individual who did it might be liable and subject to legal ramifications for defamation, for invasion of privacy, et cetera. The question is--what about the online service provider? Can you sue Google for that? Can you sue Yahoo for that? And the answer is--except in limited circumstances--the answer is, generally speaking, no, you cannot. We were involved in a nationwide class action against Yahoo that was recently approved in California where we were able to get beyond the protection of the statute because we alleged that in that particular case Yahoo went beyond just acting like a conduit of the information. And we said they disseminated it. We said they knew it was false. And they continued to forward that information to other people to get them to subscribe. That was the allegation. They denied that.
SPERO CANTON: So this goes for any type--YouTube, Yahoo, Google, all these different groups out there, right?
RANDY ROSENBLUM: It would apply to all of them. And with the proliferation of Facebook and MySpace and YouTube and some of the other online providers we've been talking about, there's so much information out there. You have to be very, very careful about the ones that you decide to use and post information on because you have very limited protections under the law.
SPERO CANTON: Are there changes in the laws coming because of the fact that this really goes against the grain of any other laws like this?
RANDY ROSENBLUM: Not yet because most people don't know about it. It only really comes up in a limited set of circumstances when someone actually tries to sue the internet service provider and they lose. Most people have never heard of this law. And that's the reason why I don't think any change is coming.
SPERO CANTON: Alright, well, thanks for bringing it to our attention. This hour's newsmaker has been Randy Rosenblum, helping internet users surf safely. I'm Spero Canton. Thank you for joining us.
FEMALE VOICE: The preceding has been a presentation of Comcast Newsmakers. And now back to CNN Headline News.
