TY - JOUR
T1 - Giving users a plain deal
T2 - Contract-related media liability for unmasking anonymous commenters
AU - Sanders, Amy Kristin
AU - File, Patrick C.
N1 - Funding Information:
80See http://www.minnpost.com/ and http://minnesotaindependent.com/. MinnPost, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has been seen as a pioneer among new nonprofit journalism news Web sites. See David Carr, After a Year of Ruin, Some Hope, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 21, 2009, B1. MinnPost has been the recipient of more than $800,000 in grants from the Knight Foundation. See http://www.knightfoundation.org/grants/grant detail.dot? id=338516&crumbTitle=Grand%20Detail. The Minnesota Independent is supported by the American Independent News Network, http://tainews.org/, which also runs sister sites the Colorado Independent, Florida Independent, Iowa Independent, Michigan Messenger, New Mexico Independent, and Washington (D.C.) Independent.
PY - 2011/3
Y1 - 2011/3
N2 - Could news organizations face civil liability for voluntarily unmasking their anonymous online commenters? This article examines that nascent legal question through a discussion of contract law applied to a study of seven news Web sites' policies and practices. The study finds that although the news organizations claim that they zealously guard user privacy and will resist unmasking commenters under almost any circumstances, most of them have user agreements that would likely immunize them from civil liability for almost any reason. Are users getting a plain deal?
AB - Could news organizations face civil liability for voluntarily unmasking their anonymous online commenters? This article examines that nascent legal question through a discussion of contract law applied to a study of seven news Web sites' policies and practices. The study finds that although the news organizations claim that they zealously guard user privacy and will resist unmasking commenters under almost any circumstances, most of them have user agreements that would likely immunize them from civil liability for almost any reason. Are users getting a plain deal?
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U2 - 10.1080/10811680.2011.559402
DO - 10.1080/10811680.2011.559402
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79953724032
SN - 1081-1680
VL - 16
SP - 197
EP - 226
JO - Communication Law and Policy
JF - Communication Law and Policy
IS - 2
ER -