WWW- Yahoo is protected by a 1996 federal statute from a lawsuit alleging it breached a duty to remove nude photos of a woman from its Web site, an Oregon judge has ruled.

A negligence claim for failure to remove or otherwise edit content “necessarily treats the [Internet] service provider as ‘publisher’ of the content and is therefore barred by” Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken said.

Cecilia Barnes’ ex-boyfriend posted the photos without her consent in Yahoo’s profiles section. They stayed on the site after a Yahoo official allegedly assured her they would be removed.

In attempting to skirt the CDA, Barnes cited Oregon tort cases where someone undertook a duty and was then negligent in performing that duty, resulting in negligence which ultimately injured the plaintiff.

But Aiken granted Yahoo’s motion to dismiss, saying Barnes’ case was distinguishable “due to the protection afforded defendant” by the law. Section 230 protects ISPs from being “treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

“Plaintiff’s claim remains an effort to hold the service provider liable for failing to perform the duties of a publisher, such as screening or removing third-party content,” Aiken concluded in her opinion.