public forum liability?

[railer]

So, I was thinking about making a little website - basically consisting of a communtiy forum - for the area that I live in. I'm doing this completely on my own, with no affiliation with my local town or county government. I get a kick out of looking at the readers column in my local paper, and thought that an online version of that would be a fun and inexpensive hobby.

The only thing stopping me is I don't want to deal with a bunch of pedophiles and other nutcases posting inappropriate and/or slanderous things - leaving me in any way responsible. Just curious if anyone has ever dealt with this, or has any thoughts.

Thanks

 

[Newbian]

Try asking this question to any of the mods here.

I am sure some of them can give you decent stories.

 

[mfenn]

I think if you have written rules against it and keep the banhammer close at hand, you will be fine. IANAL

 

[Modelworks]

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode47/usc_sec_47_00000230----000-.html

The relevant part is:

c) Protection for “Good Samaritan” blocking and screening of offensive material
(1) Treatment of publisher or speaker
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

(2) Civil liability

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on account of—

(A) any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected; or
(B) any action taken to enable or make available to information content providers or others the technical means to restrict access to material described in paragraph (1).

Basically you can not be held responsible for what someone else does on your forum. You can only be held liable for what you post.

 

[allisolm]

Here's one story.

Earlier this year several mods got an email and/or PM alleging Trademark Infringement and Defamation that was seeking: preliminary and permanent injunctions, compensatory damages, punitive damages, compensation equal to lost sales, reimbursement of attorneys' fees, and a court order that Anandtech remove the defamatory posting and that your user and Anandtech compensate for damage to it's goodwill and reputation.

Whoa! Sounds serious, eh? A little research showed that a member had made one single complaint post about the amount of time it took a company to mail an item he had ordered online. And, get this, the member's complaint thread was dated more than 5 years before the letter was sent, and had not even been responded to in more than 5 years!

He even sent a followup letter about a week later. We all laughed a lot and had a good time framing possible replies () but did nothing except pass the information up to Anand since it involved a direct threat of legal action. We haven't heard anything more from him and we don't know if Anand has.

 

[Crono]

As long as you aren't encouraging an environment of criminal activity, you should be fine. Prudent moderation should keep you more than safe from any type of legal issue.

 

[her209]

Post a negative, but true experience with a business.
Get sued.

 

[polarmystery]

Post a negative, but true experience with a business.
Get sued.

This is why our country is going down the toilet.

 

[PsiStar]

I wondered about this, but resellerratings would be a legal gold mine if there was a chance of liability not to mention all of the whining & complaining that goes on with Customer Reviews at places like newegg. And, then there is Consumer Reports.

One hobbyist web site I frequent has *no* published rules. It doesn't seem that there is much to worry about.

 

[mmntech]

I can't comment on the US but I know here, you are liable for comments made on your forum. However, people generally are not going to go after smaller websites or small potatoes. Only if it becomes persistent. I review all comments on my blog though just to stay on the safe side.

 

[KeithTalent]

Here's one story.

Earlier this year several mods got an email and/or PM alleging Trademark Infringement and Defamation that was seeking: preliminary and permanent injunctions, compensatory damages, punitive damages, compensation equal to lost sales, reimbursement of attorneys' fees, and a court order that Anandtech remove the defamatory posting and that your user and Anandtech compensate for damage to it's goodwill and reputation.

Whoa! Sounds serious, eh? A little research showed that a member had made one single complaint post about the amount of time it took a company to mail an item he had ordered online. And, get this, the member's complaint thread was dated more than 5 years before the letter was sent, and had not even been responded to in more than 5 years!

He even sent a followup letter about a week later. We all laughed a lot and had a good time framing possible replies () but did nothing except pass the information up to Anand since it involved a direct threat of legal action. We haven't heard anything more from him and we don't know if Anand has.

That was hilarious. What a freaking nutjob.

KT

 

[AVAFREAK182]

Here's one story.

Earlier this year several mods got an email and/or PM alleging Trademark Infringement and Defamation that was seeking: preliminary and permanent injunctions, compensatory damages, punitive damages, compensation equal to lost sales, reimbursement of attorneys' fees, and a court order that Anandtech remove the defamatory posting and that your user and Anandtech compensate for damage to it's goodwill and reputation.

Whoa! Sounds serious, eh? A little research showed that a member had made one single complaint post about the amount of time it took a company to mail an item he had ordered online. And, get this, the member's complaint thread was dated more than 5 years before the letter was sent, and had not even been responded to in more than 5 years!

He even sent a followup letter about a week later. We all laughed a lot and had a good time framing possible replies () but did nothing except pass the information up to Anand since it involved a direct threat of legal action. We haven't heard anything more from him and we don't know if Anand has.

WOW. haha

You can't by chance name said company right? I assume not

 

[dfuze]

I wondered about this, but resellerratings would be a legal gold mine if there was a chance of liability not to mention all of the whining & complaining that goes on with Customer Reviews at places like newegg. And, then there is Consumer Reports.

One hobbyist web site I frequent has *no* published rules. It doesn't seem that there is much to worry about.

I would guess they would leave the bigger fish alone (the Consumer Reports type places) because they would lose to them but feel they could bully and scare the smaller places into paying up with just fear tactics.

 

[D1gger]

Didn't youtube just win a big case that Viacom had started claiming copywrite infringement from material posted on youtube? IIRC the courts upheld that Youtube was not liable for actions of independant posters, as long as they removed copywrite infringing material upon proper notification by the copywrite holder. I beleive this is all covered in the DMCA that holds that the web site owner or ISP cannot be held liable for the actions of their users.