Barrett v. Rosenthal To Get A Second Look

Last month, in Barrett v. Rosenthal (PDF), the California Court of Appeal (First District, Division 2) reversed the Alameda County Superior Court's determination that the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA) immunized Ilena Rosenthal from defamation liability when she re-posted statements of a third party in an Internet newsgroup. (See the EFF's case archive.) Last week, the Court of Appeal agreed to take another look at its decision when it granted (11/10 docket entry) respondent Rosenthal's Petition for Rehearing. I haven't read the Petition and so don't know on what grounds rehearing was sought, but the San Francisco Chronicle is not optimistic about the chances for a substantive turnaround: "such reviews seldom change the results[, and] [a]n appeal to the state Supreme Court seems virtually certain...." [Via ILN]