Internet Archive v. Hoffman
The Internet Archive has filed a new legal challenge against a New Jersey state law -- N.J. P.L. c. 51 § 12(b)(1); originally A3352 -- that aims to make online service providers criminally liable for providing access to third parties’ materials, conflicting directly with federal law and threatening the free flow of information on the Internet. This is the second time that EFF is representing the Internet Archive in order to block enforcement of a law that’s aimed at combatting online ads for underage sex workers but instead includes language that could put online libraries and other service providers at risk. The New Jersey statute is an almost carbon copy of a law successfully blocked by EFF and the Internet Archive last year. Backpage.com filed its own complaint seeking to strike down the New Jersey law.
Update: On August 9, 2013, District Court Judge Dennis Kavanaugh granted the plaintiffs' motions for a preliminary injunction, finding that plaintiffs were likely to prevail on its claims that the statute violated Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and the dormant Commerce Clause.
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Succumbing to years of government pressure, the online classified ads website Backpage.com has shut down its adult services section. Just like Craigslist before it, Backpage faced the difficult choice of censoring an entire forum for online speech rather than continue to endure the costly onslaught of state...
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UPDATE: In March 2016, relying in large part on Section 230, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of plaintiffs' lawsuit.
A federal judge in Massachusetts dismissed a lawsuit brought against the classified ads website Backpage.com over posting ads for the...
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UPDATE: Both the Massachusetts District Court and the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiffs' lawsuit against Backpage should be dismissed. Both courts agreed with EFF that Section 230 provides broad protection for websites against liability for content posted by their users. Specifically, both courts adopted...
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Newark, NJ - A New Jersey federal district court judge granted motions for a preliminary injunction today, blocking the enforcement of a dangerous state law that would put online service providers at risk by, among other things, creating liability based on "indirect" publication of content by speech platforms.
The...
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A New Jersey federal district court judge on Friday will hear oral arguments in a challenge to an overbroad state law that, if upheld, would threaten to undermine bedrock legal protections for online speech. The legal challenge was brought by EFF on behalf of the Internet Archive,...
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