I was wondering..In a discussion community like a blog, where people post comments or a forum, is the owner responsible for the content in the user's message. I mean, if there is something wrong, in the post or comment, does the owner get sued? Like I post something incorrect about Google on DP, then does Shawn get sued?
There are many members here(around 50K),if Shawn gets sued when a user post something incorrect,how can Shawn live with that?
in a European country this year was a clear ( and final ) verdict that held the forum/site owner liable for content where a forum member insulted another forum member. within EU countries this may become a possible standard ... from a normal point of view this seems very reasonable to me - however it may seem to restrictive for all those who have little or no www/hosting knowledge and just want to make easy $ without investment of time, resources and $ a site owner has a duty to keep his site clean, loving and friendly, a site owner has SW and other control and filter means to adjust post permissions to trustworthy, verified and KNOWN individual persons vs unknown, unregistered posters, anonymous posters, alias posters or posters with a history in violation of good conduct
I am wondering exactly what the European Union legal precedence is. Free expression is held just about as dearly in the E.U. as it is in the U.S.A., thus I would doubt that these types of comments are actionable unless libel is included. As for getting sued, you can sue for just about anything in the U.S.A., but that doesn't mean your case will win or be heard by a court for that matter.
I am actually really confused about this issue. As, I have started a service, on my website where you can post about scammers and the way you were cheated:- _http://www.scamsky.com/report-a-scam/ Now the problem is, if a user A, comes and posts something, about user B, then can user B, sue me?
He might, especially if User A's comments were unfounded, exaggerated, or an outright lie. That is one reason why I set up my business as an LLC: to protect my personal assets in the event of a worst case scenario.
Maybe yes, maybe no. I would run your disclaimer by the eyes of an attorney to see if it will hold up in a court of law.
Will something as simple as this work :- "I am not responsible for the ....blah blah blah"? Thanks a lot for the help anyays MattKNC
It could. I made up a disclaimer of sorts with a privacy policy on one of my sites. Feel free to lift and change content as you wish. Just remember this: due to the nature of your site -- revealing scammers and their practices -- you'll probably incur a significant amount of wrath. Regardless, I hope you can shed light on bad stuff and do your part without incurring a legal challenge.
if you are a parent then you are liable for all happening in your home done by your children as parents - with or without disclaimers same principle for site-owners in many legal systems whoever favors, tolerates, invites or encourages others to to insult each other - as a site owner - may get sued with or without disclamer - as an owner of a site you are in full control of all topics - if you chose violent or aggression stirring topics leading to members insulting each others it is of course the site owners sole and full responsibility as NO ONE ever forced him to create a cyber battle-ground instead of a positive, constructive and instructional environment. you get what you ask for also as site users warriors attract warriors and thus lawsuits - national or international there are at least BILLIONS of peaceful alternate options for a site's content if you have neither lawyers for free nor millions of $ in excess - why consider a questionable site where you have a lifetime struggle and may get sued any time from any party the simple fact that you are confused and have such questions is proof enough that such topic-oriented site exceeds your potential by all criteria you would have to consider local/national and international law as well as applicable law of your residence and hosting company geo-location related law
In my country, yeah, you could get in a lot of trouble. Apparently Malaysia and Singapore are really serious about blog content and comments. There have been bloggers who spend nights in jails or being interrogated by police because of a comment.
You would do well to cut your losses now, and sell the domain. Getting sued for libel is one of the main costs of running a forum. Libel threats are almost inevitable, no matter what the topic of your forum is. But you are just inviting trouble. Remember, users can't be trusted. Whilst there may be some out there with genuine grievances, there will always be those who just want to harm their business rivals, under cover of a proxy IP and a fake username. There will be others who make things up, just for the pure devilment of it. And almost everyone who gets accused of running a scam will set their lawyers on you, whether they are justified or not.
I know there was just a case in the California supreme court where they found that site owners are not responsible for the content of their users. This obviously wasnt in THE supreme court, or it would have set a precedence country-wide. Like others have said, you can be sued for anything, but defamation cases are one of the hardest to prove. They have to prove that a person knowingly lied in an attempt to defame someone. Telling the truth or giving an opinion, however horrible it may be, is not defamation. So, it stands to reason, that not only would they have to prove that the person lied, but also that you knew it was a lie. That seems rather impossible... I think creating a site to inform people of scams is a noble effort and you shouldn't let the fear of being sued stop you.