clipped from: www.nytimes.com   
The Subway/Quiznos case hinges on how the District Court of Connecticut interprets two federal laws: the Lanham Act, which dates to the 1940s and centers on trademark rights, and the Communications Decency Act, which was passed in 1996 to safeguard the Internet.

Last spring, Quiznos and iFilm tried to claim they should not be liable for user-generated content because of the Communications Decency Act, which immunizes “providers” of “interactive computer services” from responsibility for user postings on their sites.

Still, a win for Subway would mean that user-generated advertising contests would have to play by new rules. The sponsors of such contests could find themselves in trouble if participants insulted a competitor or made unsubstantiated claims about products, said Sam Bayard, assistant director of the Citizen Media Law Project.