To: scion who wrote (11448 ) 7/13/2011 8:57:29 AM From: scion Respond to Statements on the iHub bulletin boards are accessible to all who choose to visit the website. Moreover, users may post initial or responsive messages after registering with the website. In their memoranda submitted prior to the June 28 hearing, Plaintiff did not dispute that Defendant iHub’s bulletin boards constitute a place open to the public and a public forum. But, during that hearing, Plaintiff’s counsel argued for the first time that the website’s message boards did not constitute public fora because Defendant iHub purportedly charges for its posting services if the post is to remain in place for more than three days. Plaintiff produced no evidence in support of this contention.[5] An examination of the iHub website shows that members can “subscribe” to certain premium content and access to post on specific boards. However, registered users can utilize “free zone boards” without subscribing or satisfying any other requirement. Further, Plaintiff has presented no evidence that the bulletin boards at issue here were denominated by iHub as “premium content.” But, even if it were the case, Plaintiff also has failed to provide any support for the proposition that a public forum that requires a subscription fee is no longer one under the terms of the anti-SLAPP statute. Moreover, the Court is not persuaded that, even if there were such a requirement, this would result in a finding that a web bulletin board is not a public forum. At most, such a forum might be analogous to the placement of a paid advertisement in a newspaper, magazine or other print medium -- something that, in the Court’s view, would not per se disqualify the place of publication as a public forum. This conclusion makes particular sense in the present setting in which every bulletin board can be read by any user and only some of the bulletins boards require a modest fee to place a post. Thus, the Court finds that iHub’s bulletin boards constitute a public forum for the purposes of § 425.16. viewer.zoho.com
