The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has found Yahoo not responsible for nude photos posted on its website by outside parties. An Oregon woman brought a lawsuit in 2005, suing Yahoo for allowing her ex-boyfriend to create a profile for her with nude photos included, and posing as her in an online chat room to solicit sex without her knowledge or permission.
The court said Yahoo was protected under a 1996 federal law that gives broad immunity to service providers to encourage the open exchange of material on the Internet by its users. The court’s ruling left open the possibility that Yahoo may be liable for promising to remove the offending materials and information. The plaintiff claimed that a Yahoo official promised to immediately remove the photos when a local TV station was preparing a report, but failed to carry out the promise.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/11/financial/f131829D98.DTL
