Legal Advice: Can I get sued over my forum's content???

[kontrabass]

I just got a call from a professional artist who feels he's been misrepresented on my forums. He's claiming libel, and threatens to sue if I don't mass delete all the threads in question.

I can't afford to hire a lawyer! How do I know if the statements my members have made against the guy are in fact false? The pro is also upset at some name-calling, and claims this is impacting his business and his good name.

What are my responsiblilties as a forum host? Has anyone else had experiences like this?

Thank you for any info :confused:

Paul

[chrispadfield]

Missed the thread one below yours?

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40964

[Craig Armstrong]

Well, I wouldn't know enough to give you any real legal advice on this subject. But try putting something like, "All posts are owned by and Copyright © their respective authors. Opinions expressed on these boards are not necessarily that of (your site's name)." at the bottom of your forums. This way, you can't be held responsible for what your members say.

[chrispadfield]

Originally posted by Craig Armstrong
Well, I wouldn't know enough to give you any real legal advice on this subject. But try putting something like, "All posts are owned by and Copyright © their respective authors. Opinions expressed on these boards are not necessarily that of (your site's name)." at the bottom of your forums. This way, you can't be held responsible for what your members say.

Sorry but that is simply not true.

[Valkyre]

I got attacked with the same crap. Flamatory remarks or something like that. Some idiot threatened to sue me because someone on my board called him gay. :rolleyes:

It's a sad fact, some people out there can't take insults or jokes as well as most of us can. It's the whiney brats like "Uuuugh, I do not liiiiike that remark. You shall take itttt down or I will suuuuue you!"

:rolleyes:

So in other words tell him that your sorry he's getting he's feelings hurt over this but it's their deal, not yours.

And what the hell happened to the first ammendment? :D

Maybe he's not from america :o

[kontrabass]

Sorry chris I'm in such a stressed out mess I just went straight for the "new topic" button.

Seems that thread is dealing with UK law... so i guess I'll keep this thread going (I'm in the US). The other thread was very informative though. But I'm not clear as to one thing - say a disgruntled businessman says that xyz posts about his business are false and libel. So I HAVE to delete them now or face a lawsuit? What if they're honest conumer complaints, like "this company is terrible because I never received my shipment..." It's the businessman's burden of proof, right?

[chrispadfield]

My understanding of it is that they would firstly have to proove that it is factually incorrect, and that would be grounds for you to be forced to remove it and then to claim damages they would have to proove they have somehow been affected financially, which would be very hard to do.

[tubedogg]

Not sure if this applies but there is a case involving AOL and some woman...she sued over some message board content that AOL knew about but did not remove, and AOL won. That might have been the ISP exception to this whole mess, though...I can't remember the details exactly. :o

[chrispadfield]

They probably showed that it was non libellous or equivalent. What is just not possible (as i understand it) is a situation where:

a) person A posts something libellous about person B on person C's site
b) person B sues person A for libell and wins.
c) person C knows about the post by person A
d) Person B sues person C for libell but looses.

Under my understanding that is not possible unless you could somehow show that Person B did not know it was libellous (sorry i can't spell) only knew that it existed.