Quote:The internet auction website, eBay, has had charges brought against it by the General Optical Council for allegedly allowing the illegal sale of contact lenses without the involvement of a qualified optician.
At the hearing next month the council will argue that eBay is responsible for preventing unsupervised sales of contact lenses via its website.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jht...ebay29.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/09/29/ixhome.html
The case reinforces eBays position as an information society service provider that hosts third-party content and does not have any obligation to monitor its site for illegal content.
But apparently does have an obligation (to itself) to monitor the site for the dreaded words "cash" or "bidpay" . . . .
Quote:an âinformation society service providerâ that hosts third-party content
I consider the eBay message boards and their review section to be "content", but I have a problem with the products for sale being described as "content". When the laws that pertain to the Internet were written I think the intent was to protect the hosts and content providers of written work and ensure the free flow of information and ideas: online magazines, books, news, the exchange of ideas on forums, etc. I don't think the laws were originally meant to protect product providers/sellers or their hosts...but the ecommerce industry used its financial muscle to push/bully the courts into expanding the definition of "content".