Blumenthal v. Drudge
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
992 F.Supp. 44 (1998)
AOL (defendant) paid Matt Drudge (defendant) to make his gossip column, the Drudge Report, available to AOL subscribers, retaining a contractual right to remove content violating its terms of service but never actually creating or editing any of Drudge's content. After Drudge published and later retracted a false story that Sidney Blumenthal (plaintiff) had abused his wife, the Blumenthals sued both Drudge and AOL for defamation; AOL moved for summary judgment, claiming immunity under § 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Whether the Communications Decency Act of 1996 provides immunity from civil liability to internet service providers that make available content solely prepared by third parties.