U.S. Athletes Rebuffed in Nude Photo Net Case

[Paul Howell]

At http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000622/wr/athletes_lawsuit_dc_1.html


Thursday June 22 12:31 AM ET 

U.S. Athletes Rebuffed in Nude Photo Net Case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge Wednesday rejected a
lawsuit against two Internet access providers, PSINet Inc.
(NasdaqNM:PSIX - news) and GTE Corp. (NYSE:GTE - news),
filed by dozens of Illinois State University athletes after their nude
images were marketed on the World Wide Web.

The ISU football players and other athletes were secretly videotaped in
various states of undress by hidden cameras in restrooms, locker
rooms and showers. The videotapes were sold on various Web sites
for which service was provided by the two companies. The video
companies that made and sold the tapes are also facing lawsuits from
the students.

Judge Charles Kocoras in the U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of Illinois had previously granted motions by the two
companies to dismiss the case after concluding that they could not be
held liable as service providers under the Communications Decency
Act of 1996.

But the students amended their case, seeking to hold both companies
liable in their capacity as ``Web site hosts,'' arguing that this role
meant they essentially functioned as ''content providers.''

Kocoras said on Wednesday that he saw no evidence that PSINet or
GTE provided any content for the Web sites in question and granted
their motion to dismiss the case.

Lawyers representing the companies hailed the ruling as a historic
decision, describing it as ``the first case to hold that Web hosting
services are immune from suit under Section 230 of the
Communications Decency Act.''

In his ruling, Kocoras said that 1996 law ``creates a federal immunity to
any cause of action that would make service providers liable for
information origination with a third-party user of the service.''

He noted that lawsuits seeking to hold a service provider liable for its
exercise of a publisher's traditional editorial functions -- such as
deciding whether to publish, withdraw, postpone or alter content --
were barred under the law.

The Illinois State University athletes were among 200 students from
more than 50 universities whose naked pictures were distributed on
sexually oriented sites on the Internet.

Without their knowledge, the athletes were videotaped at urinals or
showers or weighing in naked at competitions.

The tapes were made by employees or students working for video
companies. These people posed as athletic trainers and slipped hidden
cameras into locker rooms in gym bags.

Taping occurred over the past decade at a host of other universities,
including Northwestern University, Eastern Illinois University, Iowa
State University, Michigan State and the University of Pennsylvania,
according to the lawsuit.