[Foundation-l] Fwd: [WL-News] Wikimedia Foundation in danger of losing immunity under the Communications Decency Act

[Anthony]

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 10:10 AM, Mike Godwin <mgodwin at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> My view continues to be that the Foundation should almost never engage
> in direct editing or removal of project content, except (as in DMCA
> takedown notices) when we are required to do so by law.
>
FWIW, I think that's an absolutely terrible decision that is the cause
of a great deal of completely unnecessary ill-will toward the
Foundation and its projects.  The only semi-coherent explanation for
it seems to be that it is required for protection under Section 230 of
the CDA, but as you and I both know this is absolutely not correct.
In fact, everything I have read on the matter suggests that the whole
point of Section 230 of the CDA was to allow service providers to
engage in direct removal of project content without becoming liable
for that which it failed to remove.