It's been a good-news, bad-news kind of month for ISPs in the courtooms. Right as they were getting slapped around by the DMCA in the Verizon case, another Court of Appeals gave them a break under the CDA. The Third Circuit ruled last week that the CDA's blanket immunity for ISPs applies not just to offensive speech but to computer code.
This interpretation means that ISPs are not liable for transmitting viruses, spyware, worms, or other malicious software at the request of users. But note the irony: if that malicious software happens to be copyrighted, the immunity doesn't apply. Welcome to our dystopian future.
Full story here (but note that the lead paragraph is wrong; it was the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, not a District Court, that issued the rulling.)