Barrett v. Rosenthal
| Barrett v. Rosenthal | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Court | Supreme Court of California |
| Full case name | Stephen J. Barrett et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants v. Ilena Rosenthal, Defendant and Respondent |
| Decided | November 20 2006 |
| Citation(s) | 40 Cal.4th 33, 146 P.3d 510, 51 Cal.Rptr.3d 55 |
| Court membership | |
| Chief Judge | George |
| Associate Judges | Kennard, Baxter, Werdegar, Chin, Moreno, Corrigan |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Corrigan, joined by George, Kennard, Baxter, Werdegar, Chin, Moreno |
| Concurrence | Moreno |
Barrett v. Rosenthal, 40 Cal.4th 33 (2006), was a California Supreme Court case concerning online defamation. The case resolved a defamation claim brought by Stephen Barrett, Terry Polevoy, and attorney Christopher Grell against Ilena Rosenthal and several others. Barrett and others alleged that the defendants had republished libelous information about them on the internet. In a unanimous decision, the court held that Rosenthal was a "user of interactive computer services" and therefore immune from liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
The California Supreme Court reversed a judgment by the California Court of Appeals, First District, which would have allowed a trial on one of the defamation claims. The lower court's decision was the first opinion to break from Zeran v. America Online, Inc. by holding that Section 230 immunity was not absolute for common law distributors. In reversing the Court of Appeals, the California Supreme Court reaffirmed Zeran and directed that all claims against the defendants be dismissed.
The case concerns an e-mail sent by Tim Bolen, a publicist for alternative medicine practitioners. While working for Hulda Clark, Bolen distributed a missive online that attacked Stephen Barrett and Terry Polevoy, medical doctors who publicly criticize what they consider quackery. Among other things, Bolen's letter accused Polevoy of stalking a Canadian radio reporter and preventing her from airing a show about alternative medicine.
One of the people who came across Bolen's letter was Ilena Rosenthal, who runs an Internet-based support group for women who have medical problems which they believe to be caused by breast implants. Rosenthal reposted Bolen's letter on two alternative medicine newsgroups. Barrett contacted her, claiming that the letter was libelous and threatening a lawsuit if she did not remove it. Rosenthal subsequently re-posted Bolen's letter, with a copy of Barrett's threat.
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