Hi guys, I've posted this at a couple of forums, but I just wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience: I run a forum and a member on my forum has a signature with a link to a domain which has trademarked words in it.....he hasnt posted much, so his sig appears maybe 10 times. Some lawyer from the company with the trademark has sent me a legal letter with some big threats.....they are claiming this user is infringing on their trademark etc. BUT they are also claiming that I am liable for their losses in every country in which they make sales. they are demanding that i delete all posts with this sig, and that I disable that users account and they are also demanding that i send them info on every one that clicked the link....(which would be impossible) and that I send something in writing stating that i have done all of this has anyone been in a similar situation?
Wow! I would completely ignore their request, because it is over-reaching. But that's me, I am more likely to do the right thing than to do the smart thing.
You can link to whoever you want. Send them a nice letter back to make them realise they cant do anything about it. Remind them, because they already know that.
I agree with this. There is absolutely no way for you to control the content of a site he links to. The most you might be required to do is now that you know about this is to simply disable the links and maybe if you feel it necessary to ban the user for this. This would be a show to any possible legal action if any that you are trying to make sure that you hold people accountable for these types of actions. Honestly I doubt they would try to do anything. This is normally done as a scare tactic though to get what they want. Also it would near impossible for you to track every click on a link from each user.
Personally I would remove the links in his sig, and do nothing else. Why should you have hassle because one user wants to have a dodgy link? Once the link is gone they should leave you alone.
add to your disclaimer that your are not responsible for any links come from member signature something like that