A French court has dismissed a defamation lawsuit against Wikipedia after it ruled that the free online encyclopedia cannot be held responsible for content posted by its users, in a landmark ruling for the Internet giant.

Apparently three French men sued Wikipedia, each seeking 69,000 euros ($100,000) in damages because their sexual orientation was revealed on the site.

Judge Emmanuel Binoche rejected their demands and argued that Wikimedia Foundation’s responsibility has not been clearly established.

“Web site hosts cannot be liable under civil law because of information stored on them if they do not in fact know of their illicit nature,” Binoche said in his written ruling released at the Paris civil law court earlier this week, Reuters writes.

In addition, the Web site hosts are not legally bound to monitor or investigate the origin of the information they store, he added.

“The decision is very clear and we appreciate the fact the court acknowledges our role as an Internet host, rather than an editor,” said Florence Devouard, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation’s board, Inquirer writes.

Founded in 2001, Wikipedia is an open-source Internet encyclopedia, which means that anyone with access to a computer can add and edit information. It has an inventory of more than 8 million articles in 250 languages and is used by millions of people worldwide.

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Entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 9:50 pm under Legal.

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