Carafano v. Metrosplash.com

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Carafano v. Metrosplash.com, Inc., 339 F.3d 1119 (9th Cir. 2003), is an American legal case dealing with the protection provided an internet service provider under the Communications Decency Act (CDA) United States Code Title 47 section 230(c)(1). It is also known as the Star Trek Actress case since the plaintiff, Christianne Carafano, is well known for appearing on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (under the stage name, Chase Masterson). The case demonstrated that the use of an online form with some multiple choice selections does not override the protections against liability for the actions of users or anonymous members of a Web-based service.

[edit] Facts of the Case

A man in Berlin created a bogus matchmaking profile for Masterson on Matchmaker.com, an online dating service. In the profile the name Chase was used, along with her photograph and home address (even though home addresses are not allowed under Matchmaker.com policies). The man also used a Yahoo! email autoresponder in the profile to provide her physical address and telephone number in response to queries. As a result, Masterson received several sexually harassing voice mail messages and a fax which she found "highly threatening and sexually explicit" and "that also threatened her son." To protect herself, Masterson fled her home, living in hotels and traveling with her son for several months.

[edit] Case history

Although Masterson was aware of the identity of the man who posted the false profile, the logistics of prosecuting him overseas proved too difficult.^{[citation needed]} Meanwhile, Masterson requested that Matchmaker remove the profile immediately but they refused, even though the profile violated their own Terms of Service policy. Masterson therefore sued Matchmaker in California state court on the grounds of defamation of character, misappropriation of the right of publicity, invasion of privacy and negligence. The defendants removed the case to federal district court and brought a motion for summary judgment. The district court judge not only rejected the claim for the service provider immunity under the CDA, but Masterson's claims sounding in tort were also thrown out by the court as the service provider had not acted in any willful manner against Masterson and the court found that no duty of care existed between the service provider and Masterson. See Carafano v. Metrosplash.com Inc., 207 F. Supp. 2d 1055 (C.D. Cal. 2002).

Masterson appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The appellate court rejected the plaintiff's argument and found no liability on the part of Matchmaker. The court found that Matchmaker is not an "information content provider," but rather an "interactive computer service" which allows the public to post information on its Web site. Under the Communications Decency Act, "interactive computer services" do not incur liability because humans create the actual content. Thus liability rests with the underlying contributor, not the interactive computer service.

The applicable section of the CDA was originally designed to apply to obvious "interactive computer services" such as America Online. Since its original passage, however, numerous courts have expanded that definition to include sites such as Matchmaker and eBay, where the service provider does not control or edit content before it appears online.