Who is legally responsible for forums?
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- Kenneth Lund
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As we're opening a site in more than 40 languages/countries, we've tried to learn who is responsible for what, the users write/upload.
We do not want to be held responsible if a user writes negative feedback on a shop or uploads a copright protected picture.
I've heard that placing the ownership of the forum in USA would be ideal, as the american law system holds the forum owner less responsible for what the users do, than other countries does.
Can someone confirm this?
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- Mack
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Kenneth Lund wrote:
As we're opening a site in more than 40 languages/countries, we've tried to learn who is responsible for what, the users write/upload.
We do not want to be held responsible if a user writes negative feedback on a shop or uploads a copright protected picture.
I've heard that placing the ownership of the forum in USA would be ideal, as the american law system holds the forum owner less responsible for what the users do, than other countries does.
Can someone confirm this?
I can confirm part of this. I can confirm that your assumption is incorrect.
Why do you think Viacom is suing Google for 1 Billion Dollars? Because users uploaded copyrighted material and downloaded it from Youtube. In the US the system owner and operator is responsible for the content on sites. What if your users posted child pornography? Can you keep allowing it to be downloaded because a user posted it?
The best thing you could do is seek professional legal help in the jurisdiction where the site owners are. You can't just "place ownership" anywhere. One other point. Many people fear seeking out professional legal advice because it is expensive. You don't know until you ask, sometimes it is not that much for a consultation.
The question you really have to ask yourself about legal advice is; "How much will it cost if I don't get professional legal advice?"
Viacom vs. Google Story Link:
www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/business/14vi...ner=rssyahoo&emc=rss - Last Edit: 16 years 9 months ago by Mack.
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- Adam Lasik
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It sort of depends on what you are afraid of...
Free speech is pretty strongly protected in the US, but is not so coveted in many countries. If it's a "free speech" type issue you're concerned about, then that may be something to consider.
When it comes to copyright and other legal matters, then the US may not be your best choice. The US is a pretty litigious place, especially if you get big enough for people to take notice of the dollar signs hovering around you. - They were forced to eat Robin's minstrels.... and there was much rejoicing.
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- Kenneth Lund
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We MAINLY have to problems:
1. Users giving negative reviews for shops (and then the shops sometimes threatens us to delete it so only possitive feedback remains)
2. Users sometimes insert copyrightet text or photos in forum
It's a wedding site, so we have no problems with neither warez, child porn etc. so we're not trying to set the site up in a way where we and other people can get away with things.
Ofte, the problem is negative reviews. The bride writes "Oh, what a cow, she wasn't good at selling" about a shop and the shop calls us up and threatens us with legal stuff if we do not remove the negative review. If we remove it, the users gets angry - noone likes to be censured and only beeing able to say nice things.......and the users will leave site in the end in favor of a forum with less censury. - Last Edit: 16 years 9 months ago by Kenneth Lund.
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- Adam Lasik
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I'm curious what, exactly, these shops are threatening you with?
If the people giving negative reviews are LYING, then it seems to me that they MIGHT have grounds against the poster (probably not, actually) - but even then it's a pretty far reach to assert any legal influence on you. In fact, I believe that there is NOTHING they can do to you...
Here's an interesting tale that seems to be... related.
www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/27/max_dimeo_lawsuit/
Note on page 2 the bit about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
In any event, the advice given earlier - see a lawyer - is the best there is.
edit: there is actually a wikipedia bit on section 230: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the...ications_Decency_Act - Last Edit: 16 years 9 months ago by Adam Lasik.
- They were forced to eat Robin's minstrels.... and there was much rejoicing.
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- Kenneth Lund
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Well, we've had the site since 2001 in Denmark - and there has been a few funny, but expencive, cases:
1. A user uploaded the lyrics for a famouse song as part of her blog about her weddingspeech for the groom. Some time after, we got a fine of 2.000 danish kroner (400$) from the ones who takes care of the copyrights regarding music and text in Denmark, for letting this happen
2. In 2004 and 2005, 6 users posted negative feedback regarding a specific danish wedding dress shop. In 2006, we were suddenly taken to court by the shop, saying that we "manufactured the 6 users" just to be able to punish them for not wanting to pay for advertizing at our site. While this was completely rediculous and we found 3 of the 6 users and they testified that they were real (but angry) users/clients of the shop, we still lost the case and had to pay 80.000 kr. (16.000$) because we didn't erase the posts when the shop wanted us to
A classic example, that we've had quite a few times, is that users upload copyrightet photos in their blogs - when they post about their hair for the wedding, they quickly find 2-3-4 photos via Google to show the other brides an example and boom: WE can be held responsible for this.
In Denmark/Danish law, even though our user terms specifically makes the user accept that they are responsible for what they post, in the end, the one who has a legal claim, will also come for us.
And now we're taking the site global....... it's obvious that we NEED to protect us against multiplying these things with 40 countries.
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- Adam Lasik
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I'm no lawyer, but it sounds like that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (USA) is exactly what you're needing.
But you're best off finding a lawyer who knows about this stuff. It will cost you far less than the $16400 you've already lost in those two cases alone. - They were forced to eat Robin's minstrels.... and there was much rejoicing.
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- Kenneth Lund
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I'm halfway through the Wiki on 230 and it seems like being just what we're looking for
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