NY court rejects online defamation suit

ALBANY -- New York's top court yesterday rejected a real estate broker's defamation claim against a rival business over anonymous comments posted on its website saying the broker mistreated agents, failed to pay bills and was racist and anti-Semitic.

The Court of Appeals split 4-3 in ruling that the federal Communications Decency Act prohibits the claim by Christakis Shiamili, head of Ardor Realty Corp. He sued The Real Estate Group of New York, its chief operating officer and the employee who moderated the now-defunct website. The content was posted for a few days in February 2008.

The defendants maintained it was a bulletin board satirizing the New York City real estate industry and claimed immunity on the grounds they didn't write the anonymous postings.

The court majority said the federal law protects them as administrators of Web content provided by others, upholding a midlevel court.

"Although a publisher of defamatory material authored by a third-party is generally subject to tort liability, Congress has carved out an exception for internet publication," Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick wrote. "Although the statements at issue are unquestionably offensive and obnoxious, defendants are nonetheless shielded from liability."

A photo illustration showing Shiamili as Jesus Christ and "King of the Token Jews" Ciparick concluded was "obviously satirical."

Dissenting judges said the notes and an illustration were material contributions to "scurrilous defamatory attacks" and outside the scope of immunity.

The case involves a federal question and could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.