I really feel sorry for what I learned about Yuga from Misteryosa. Yuga through his comment on the Blog Herald, narrated:

I run a fairly small start-up web hosting here in the Philippines. One of our former clients runs a forum that we used to host. Several members of that forum were throwing vindictives against a their former employer. That employer sent us a demand letter thru their law firm demanding that we terminate the site or be charged with libel as well. The client moved out from us the following day. However, the employer/complainant has now filed several libel law suits against us claiming that we are the owner of the domain and the operator of the site. The site is still up and running though hosted somewhere else, the domain was also transferred away from us. Still, the complainant is alleging we should have enforced some sort of regulations or control over the content when it was still with us.

So, Yuga is sued just because his hosting company, “Ploghost“, hosted a site which contains libelous materials. Well, I don’t have enough knowledge on the laws of the Philippines related to internet, but I am wondering if a company hosting a clients site is also liable for the content of the site. And I think, Tingog has a better idea about it:

This is totally absurd, and I am fairly sure that this will get thrown out. If you want a comparison, I can compare it to renting an apartment. A renter is doing drugs in his apartment, the cops are aware of the situation, so they decide to arrest the landlord. Obviously, you are supposed to arrest the people who rent the apartment. Idiots!

Because of this, we fellow bloggers of Yuga are asking you a favor:

In line with this, some regular readers of the Herald suggested that we help out Abe with his expenses by setting up a legal fund. After all, this is a case where online publications are involved. And this could happen to any blogger (I’ve heard of bloggers in other countries being sued because of comments that readers have posted).

We’ve set up a Xoom link where you can send in funds: www.xoom.com/pay/26999757 . Xoom accepts any amount from $25 to $2,500. For smaller amounts, you can send paypal to theblogherald (at) gmail (dot) com.

Thinking about made me scared…

Update February 16, 2007:

I think the case against MySpace can help…

In a decision that boded well for the youth-oriented social networking website in similar suits, US district court judge Sam Sparks in Texas ruled on Tuesday that MySpace was not responsible for people’s honesty online or their arranged encounters.

“This decision reaffirms that under federal law Internet sites like MySpace cannot be held liable for content posted by, or wrongdoing committed by, individuals who visit our site,” MySpace said in a written release. …

“MySpace had no duty to protect Julie Doe from (the man’s) criminal acts nor to institute reasonable safety measures on its website,” Sparks said in a written ruling tossing out the 30-million-dollar lawsuit.

“If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not MySpace.”…

Sparks said the Communications Decency Act passed in 1996 gave MySpace and other websites protected them from being “crippled by lawsuits arising out of third-party communications.”

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