i am having a bit of an issue with a trollish user. basically, this user has an ongoing dispute with another user and they often have fights. one of the users has elected to up the ante and has presumably hired an attorney to gain my rl details (the site owner). i am guessing the next step is to then harass me legally to gain details about their nemesis. its quite stupid considering they email one another as well and he thus already has the same info i do; an ip address and an email address... anyway, i seem to be having a problem with tucows/contactprivacy. it appears they are prepared to revoke my domain and reveal my whois info based on nothing more than a letter from some lawyer and due to nothing more serious than forum butthurt. i dont think they have even read the letter... i suspect they are going to base this decision of the fact that i am not wanting to contact this attorney and respond to his request, even though the letter is not intended for me and is clearly intended for tucows. the attorney is wanting some sort of response from tucows/contactprivacy, not me. im not sure what i should be doing at this point. i am seriously considering transferring my domain off to katzglobal or todaynic. i am not a spammer or phisher or into anything shady. i just run a forum and dont need this kind of stress over others' stupid forum dramas. they arent even using real names on the board. this is as if i started claiming 'aceshigh' was a victim of defamation. this is the exchange i have had with the 'compliance officer' at tucows as of today: so what do you reckon? am i really this screwed over something so stupid? is it really this easy to get private whois info out of contactprivacy? do i need to move my domain and hosting out of the usa for a bit of peace of mind?
I would tell tucows that you will not provide and they, per their terms, should not provide any information without a subpoena. If the lawyer wants the info he can go get one. It is not hard. That being said, you seem to be playing a game where as site admin you are trying to protect one of your users. Sounds fun until you get a subpoena and then you may want to decide how much you want to keep protecting your friend. You may very well find yourself the one being sued and not him.
just to clarify: neither of the two members are my mates. im not going to bat for either of them, nor have i ever been involved in or participated in their drama. i dont so much protect 'one of' my users as i protect all of them. i cant imagine handing over their information to somebody without being forced to do so. and in case it isnt obvious, i am the one he intends to sue. on what grounds i dont know. but his letter clearly states that he wants tucows to fork over my info so that he can pursue some sort of legal action against me. im thinking i cant really count on tucows or the legal system and should probably pull the domain and hosting offshore. its ironic that in an effort to preserve members' rights to free speech i am looking to move operations to china or whatnot hey.
Right, I said I would tell them to get a subpoena and not just offer information because they asked for it. That being said, defamation is not free speech and if someone is being defamed they has every right to try and sue that person if they choose. All I was suggesting is that you keep a neutral posture and not to try hide so that you do not have to reveal his information should it be legally requested. The act of moving your domain to avoid a subpoena is what I was suggesting seems like trying to protect a member from having his info revealed.
I'm not sure moving the website/hosting offshore would mitigate liability as they still have a jurisdictional basis to sue you. IE: As a U.S. citizen, you can't run a child porn website hosted in Singapore and everything be legal, U.S. laws would still apply if the domain/website could, in anyway, be linked to you. (which at this point seems like like a done deal as Tucows has records). Also, why not simply remove the defamatory remarks and save everyone the hassle? Sure they're trying to strong-arm you into doing so, but it allows you to save face if your members aren't getting sued and neither are you. As browntwn noted: defamation is not "free speech." -- it often carries a very highh cost .
but i do indeed want to protect my members from this sort of thing. the 'defamation' thing is quite annoying as well. we arent talking about real-life identies here. we are talking about anonymous forum handles. you dont think it would be over the top for me to drag a website owner into court because i was flamed, as 'aceshigh', in a forum thread?? this is the sort of thing i want to avoid. i do not want it to be something that is going to be seen as normal or expected. i dont want my members thinking that anytime somebody asks for an ip and whatnot that its just going to be handed over. and im not even certain that is what this is what this is about anyway. all i know is that somebody posted something he didnt like, and now he wants my contact details so that he may subject me to some sort of legal undertakings. i am australian. the server and the other two people are in the usa. he hasnt asked to have anything removed. the totally of all communication was posted in the first post. i dont know what he wants. i know what i want though: to avoid the suit-happy american legal-wringer over petty forum disputes.
Sure the guy sounds like an insecure wanker, but nonetheless, when you get a legal request you must deal with it and it is not your role to decide the merits of the case. Again, I would tell them to say that you will pf course comply with a legal subpoena and short of that you demand that they not release your information subject to their own policy. Not much else you can do right?
'whois privacy' is one of the most fabulous wastes of money ever invented. I've never met one yet who didn't roll over and dump you at even the slightest hint of trouble. You have to look at it from their POV. You are paying them a10 bucks or so, and 10 bucks doesn't provide a whole lot of human service. In fact you've already had it, in terms of the compliance officers time, so expect to be outed immediately. Ban both users, and tell the compliance officer you will respond. Then respond noncomittally.
just an update. i never received another email from contactprivacy, nor did i ever respond to the attorneys demand. i have never heard another thing about it. the individual that initiated the lawsuit set their profile to invisible and read the threads where they were called out and mocked by members for initiating legal action. they logged in less and less and finally vanished.