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07-16-2006, 07:11 PM
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legal threats
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Posts: 231
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I've received two in the past, one was more serious than the other.
I thought about this again the other when Fox news had something about menwhocheat.com or something like that, where women can out their cheating husbands/boyfriends.
Anyway, I run a political forum, and someone registered, and posted some stuff about a wealthy (unknown) business man. And his lawyers called me up and wanted me to remove the posts, and that if I didn't they could sue me for Google's cache of it.
They claimed as the site owner I was responsible for libelous statements. I wanted to say go f--- yourself, but in the end, I wasn't going to shell out dollar #1 to protect somebody on my forums.
Has anybody had experience with this? What's the best way to handle it?
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07-16-2006, 07:20 PM
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Posts: 1,223
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isn't it freedom of press? -_^?
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07-16-2006, 07:27 PM
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Posts: 231
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i asked the lawyer this, he said because his client is not a celebrity or public person, false statements can be illegal.
I told him I didn't post it, but he said as the owner once you're made aware, if you don't remove it, you can personally be liable.
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07-16-2006, 07:38 PM
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Posts: 1,223
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Yeah, but everyone has the right to their own opinion..
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07-16-2006, 07:40 PM
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Posts: 231
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sure, but i guess the flip side is everyone has a right to sue over it.
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07-17-2006, 12:36 AM
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Posts: 1,534
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Freedom of speech, freedom of the press. I'd say you should be fine. They can sue you, but I strongly doubt they'd win.
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07-17-2006, 03:48 AM
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Posts: 231
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right, i understand your position. But I would have to defend myself, and I'm not in the business of hiring lawyers to defend people.
Have you had experience with this, at all? Because I would've said the same before.
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07-17-2006, 05:41 AM
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Posts: n/a
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What's the benefit of removing the post? What's the negatives? Weigh them out... I'm sure you'll see that there are not many negatives compared to the positives.
I'm not a lawyer nor am I **** near one but I'm pretty sure that the lawyer's claims regarding people making comments about people who are not celebrities is considered slander and someone could be sued for it. Who's the one to be sued over it thought, that's the quesiton.
Do you have anything on the site stating that you cannot be held responsible for posts made by your usres?
If it were me, I'd remove it to save myself time and energy. If the person is not really a known person then do you really see your site benefiting from this?
In the end of this all what I would suggest is that you make sure you contact the user who posted the thread and explain to him the situation. I'm sure he'll understand and if he feels that strongly about the subject help he get setup with his own website in which he can link to in his signature.
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07-17-2006, 05:45 AM
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Posts: 231
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I contacted the user, and they went about with freedom of speech claims. I replied, "well if you want to foot the bill, I'm more than happy to have him contact your lawyer." Needless to say, I never heard back, and he left us alone.
I did give the lawyer my TOS, and he pointed out that it says
Quote:
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While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message.
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At that point I just deleted it. However, I spent the next day or so scouring the internet, and I did find a case with AOL where this exact thing happened, and it ruled in AOL's favor, they were neither liable, nor were they required to remove the post. |
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07-17-2006, 12:57 PM
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Posts: 21
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hmmm... I'm a law student myself... and guess for "small" boards they are right! You can't spread, or aid the spreading of false rumours.
So basicly the person who stated it will be sued, but when this person isn't trace-able, you as the publisher will be held responsible! And freedom of speech can'be applied here, because as fr as i can see there were not any proven facts!
I assume the AOL case has a different background than this one, and also don't forget you can't pay (i guess) the lawyers AOL pays  |
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07-17-2006, 01:13 PM
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Posts: 1
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Proving slander is very very very hard.
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07-17-2006, 02:39 PM
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Posts: 231
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the aol case was basically the same thing. An ex-employee posted libelous information about his ex-boss on the AOL message boards. Same thing happened here on my forum. The big difference is, I don't have the lawyers AOL has. I'm no law student, but I will certainly cite this case if it comes up again.
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07-17-2006, 02:50 PM
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Posts: 21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chovy
the aol case was basically the same thing. An ex-employee posted libelous information about his ex-boss on the AOL message boards. Same thing happened here on my forum. The big difference is, I don't have the lawyers AOL has. I'm no law student, but I will certainly cite this case if it comes up again.
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I'd say just delete it ... even if you are right... these things aren't important enough to end up in courts for the next 10 years! |
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07-18-2006, 02:13 AM
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Posts: 18
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I have no experiance at all but id just remove it, play it safe.
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07-18-2006, 10:03 AM
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Posts: 506
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Check these out.
US Federal Law, (see 47 U.S.C. §. 230(c ))
Batzel v. Smith, 333 F.3d 1018 (2003)
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