The New York Times, December 18, 2010 by Stephanie Rosenbloom
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/us/19date.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=berkeley&st=nyt
The Communications Decency Act absolves Internet service providers of liability because the sites are not considered the publishers of the information on their pages—their members are. The reasoning is that sites would not be able to operate if they were responsible for everything posted by their users. Lawyers have tried to get around this law, but “they usually fail,” said Brian Carver.