Patrick Luff

Patrick Luff, visiting assistant professor at the College of Law, was quoted in an article written by J. Craig Anderson of The Arizona Republic on Wednesday, Feb. 6. The article also ran in USA Today and on WUSA Channel 9 in Denver and First Coast News in Jacksonville, Fla., among others.

The article, titled “Go Daddy sued over revenge-porn site,” describes a lawsuit filed by 17 women against the Scottsdale-based web hosting company, Go Daddy, for hosting Texxxan.com. The website published nude photos of the women, which their ex-boyfriends submitted as a form of revenge.

The plaintiff’s attorneys said Go Daddy is listed as a defendant under the “doctrine of civil conspiracy” because it profited from the activities of Texxxan.com.

“That’s just a complete non-starter,” Luff said. “The people hosting the website are not responsible for what’s on the website.”

The Communications Decency Act of 1996 clearly protects Web-hosting companies such as Go Daddy from liability for the content of their customers’ websites, Luff said. He added, however, that it’s not clear whether the plaintiffs could successfully sue the porn website.

To read the full article, click here.

Luff’s research focuses on legislative and judicial methods of regulating risk. His teaching and research interests include administrative law, civil procedure, judicial decision making, jurisprudence, regulatory theory, and remedies.