[xsmasher]

The blogger put the post up on Wordpress.com. It now resides on a server wholly owned by Wordpress, which is serving up the blog to the entire world.

I'm trying to avoid making a third analogy, because analogy usually takes you further from the specifics, but apparently I can't help it: It's analogous to suing YouTube when a user uploads copyrighted content. What is YouTube's responsibility to stop serving up the "illegal" content? Or a mail host's responsibility to stop customers from sending spam?

Hosts can not wash their hands of the content that they're sending out just because it was user-generated.

[pjnewton]

I think you may have been better off not making the third analogy... Because now I want to ask: So republishing copyrighted material and posting a scathing review are in the same 'illegal' class?

[xsmasher]

That's the problem with analogy - it moves the conversation off the topic and onto the fit and fitness of the analogy. I should have thought of something with cars.

My point was not that both crimes were equivalent. My point was that "a user did it!" is not a defense against lawsuits.

[pjnewton]

Yeah I agree, that is definitely no defense. I just don't know if I would even consider a lawsuit like this valid. But I'm not a lawyer nor am I in Romania so I'm speaking completely from opinion.