Comments on: Others post, you get sued

Internet attorney Eric J. Sinrod examines whether online service providers are legally responsible for content users create.

[`WarpKat]

Guns and Gun Makers

This issue isn't going away - the appellate court got it wrong - if guns were used in a homicide, then gun makers should be liable, yes? Why hold the criminal accountable? The gun maker made the gun! Sue the gun maker!

[baike]

what laws?

In what way does a roommate finder bulletin board violate fair housing laws? Are they trying to say that people are only allowed certain reasons for choosing roomates?

[inetdog]

Yes, they are trying to say that....

Fair housing laws do regulate, with justification based on non-dicrimination laws applied to commerce and on the general public good, what a landlord can do.

They are specifically prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race or membership in other protected groups.
But there is generally an explicit exception for a home owner who rents a room with shared access to common parts of the home such as kitchen, laundry, etc. In that case, since there is an "element of personal service" to making the rental available, some degree of discrimination is allowed. (White Christian woman of good moral character, for example.)
What the rules are when someone who wants to get together with someone else to share a rented or purchased accomodation is not as clear to me. And even more on the edge is what applies when someone has rented a two bedroom apartment in their own name and are only then trying to find a roomate to sublet to or share the rental cost with.
Since I don't know what the actual incidents cited in this case were, I can't be more specific.

[inetdog]

Not the best analogy

But if there were already a mechanism by which the gun manufacturers were able to watch their guns being used once they had been sold, and had the ability to disable the guns by remote control, and someone argued that the manufacturers had failed to use those abilities the outcome might well be different.
At that point the gun manufacturers would have to argue persuasively that it was not practical, not cost effective, or that they had been explicitly granted safe harbor status as a provider of interactive guns to avoid liability.

[royc]

What part of what law

This story is mis-leading. It does not supply enough info about what part of what law is at the heart of the suit.