''Lunney v. Prodigy Services Co.'', 94 N.Y.2d 242 (1999) is a leading U.S. law case on liability of

internet service providers An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privatel ...

for

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

. The court held that

Prodigy Prodigy, Prodigies or The Prodigy may refer to: * Child prodigy, a child who produces meaningful output to the level of an adult expert performer ** Chess prodigy, a child who can beat experienced adult players at chess Arts, entertainment, and ...

, an internet

chatroom The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from r ...

provider, was not considered a publisher of defamatory material posted from an imposter account due to its passive role in monitoring the chatrooms.

External links

Decision text at FindLaw

New York (state) state case law United States Internet case law United States defamation case law 1999 in United States case law 1999 in New York (state) {{US-case-law-stub