How complaintsboard.com can operate

Hi guys this is my first post, i hope you can help me.

How complaintsboard.com/ can operate with all the personal information they reveal on the site.

Is this legal?

A company can not sue for defamation or something.

I really want to make a site so that people can report ill treatment of companies and stuff but I'm a little scared about the legal side.

Wjat do u think, it's worth?


PD. Sorry about my english

 

They state the legal justification on their website.

"Under federal law (the Communications Decency Act) ComplaintsBoard.com is not legally responsible for the complaints that are posted, even if those complaints contain remarks that are defamatory."

Basically the complaints themselves are posted by users (user generated content) and thus the website is acting as an OSP (online service provider) and afforded protection by the DMCA.

http://www.complaintsboard.com/legal-information.html

 

So if i want to start a site like this i just need to especificate in the Legal Information?

I want to do it in Spanish, any tips?

 

I do not think there is any such full protection, maybe limited protections.
Lets say a defamatory post ended up on the board about facebook;
do you think their pockets are that deep to defend such a lawsuit if facebook
deemed that they would go after the site in open court?

right off hand, I know of at least one forum that ended up facing a lawsuit
because the site refused to remove a post that was defamatory; not only did
the forum refuse to delete the post, they also leeched lots of defense cash
from their members, and they pitched in like a bunch of wild hogs; and I am not
talking about 1000's of posts; I am just talking about 1 post making slanderous remarks.

You can hide behind what-ever wall you want in dream-land and pretend you are
not responsible because you are not the one making the posts, but you know they
are there, and do nothing about them because you think you have immunity,
which is not true; If your pockets are deep enough, then you can pretty much sue anyone.
(You do have certain protections, but that does not protect your cash
flow if the other party decides to take full legal action)

however; winning the lawsuit is another story...
(either way, both parties may end up spending lots
of money so they can protect their good name/or site)

I am sure these big complaint boards get their fair share of lawsuits.
You can justify as right one way, and loose money another....

Here is one complaint board suing another complaint board.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/45346719/Ripoff-Report-v-Complaints-Board-COMPLAINT

If you go into this expecting 0 lawsuits...
Then you may need to rethink your plan...

If you do your homework, then you will quickly find out
that ripoffreport and complaint board have had their
fair of lawsuits, and this is far as I go....

 

I can't speak for why some other random site was unable to protect themselves. I can speak for myself and my experience with the law. If you follow the rules of the DMCA, and a user post defames somebody, it would be fairly easy to get out of a lawsuit suing you as the OSP. There are many ways to look at a lawsuit like that. Sure you could get sued, but you could get the case dismissed without much effort or cost. That is not something that I would be overly concerned about. Then again, I am a lawyer, so the mere threat of an unmeritorious lawsuit that has a clearly defined legal ground to get the case dismissed would not be something I would worry too much about. Other people might not feel the same way.

 

I am not sure why a site would want to continue on with a lawsuit other then
publicity for the site; If he would have followed DMCA practices, and had just removed
a simple post in question, then I am sure he could have gotten any suit dropped
fairly quickly, but he decided to protect the member that created the post, and
refused to remove the post; rather then doing it the easy way, I guess he took
his suit to the members of his forum to asked for help, and he got lots of it, or maybe
the other party wanted to sue the poster, but the forum protected the member,
and the forum got sued instead, either way, the owner decided to do it the hard way...
do you give up your member, or do you protect them, and ask your loyal followers
to pay the way? oh well, not even sure if the case is still on-going or not. It it obvious
that he did not follow any DMCA rules, like you said, if he had followed any DMCA
practices, then he probably could have got the cased dropped before leeching into
the pockets of his members to help him carry his lawsuit...

Lawyers can do some really good stuff; I have gotten out of some tickets that
I should have never gotten out of, but a good lawyer can do wonders...

and I do not think people really understand the cost of a lawyer when they start
dishing out stuff like "I am going to sue paypal"

lawyers do have different rates, but I have paid lawyers anywhere from
$300-$500 just to stand in front of a judge for less then 15 min to
make their arguments to get my cases dismissed, and this was a fixed rate.
I would imagine an ongoing rate could be between $100-$300/hr
and probably much higher for rich people lawyers....

 

Some of the top lawyers in the US now charge over $1000 an hour. Sounds crazy to me, but I guess if they can provide you a service you can't get elsewhere, and the result is worth it, then the free market makes it happen.

Big Law's $1,000-Plus an Hour Club
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704071304576160362028728234.html

 

Ha! General Electric (GE) is part of that club....
why am I not surprised...

In order for me to earn $1000/hr...
I would have to win the lottery....
a couple times....

 

I live in Spain and while what you want to do is nothing illegal, Spain is probably one of the safest place in the world to do anything illegal. You can pretty much kill someone and get away with it. On average the civil cases take about 7 years before going to court, so even someone sues you by the time the case comes to court most likely both the company and your web site is long gone.