Bev Stayart sued Yahoo, but a federal court dismissed her complaint.  Bev claimed that she is the only person who uses her name on the internet.  She searched for her name at yahoo.com and altavista.com and found many spam sites offering to sell Cialis (and other related drugs) or that contained explicit banner ads for adultfriendfinder.com.  Bev Stayart sued Yahoo and Overture (former owner of altavista.com, which was acquired by Yahoo)  for false endorsement under the Lanham Act and violation of privacy.

Bev’s claims were barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Section 230 grants interactive online services of all types, including news websites, blogs, forums, and listservs, broad immunity from certain types of legal liability stemming from content created by others.

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