Liability regarding posts

[rknight111]

I am the owner and webmaster of http://www.snowandmud.com , I had a nasty email from a hotel / Bed and Breakfast owner today that gave me 2 days to remove all the negitive posts about his place on my site. #1. I do not put the posts on the site, If there is so many negitive posts about this hotel mabie there true, out of 13 there is one positive. What liability do I hold by leaving stuff like this on and as a bulletin board I cannot control what is posted and isnt there freedom of speach??

RON

[harmor]

If the negative posts are true and not lies then they can't do anything. Correct me if I'm wrong but if a member said "They sneak into your room and touch your genitals" but is in fact not true then you can be sued.

[rknight111]

Here's what they emailed me

Hi Forum:
XXXXXXX resort and my name XXX, referred to as 'dick' in several forum comments are being slandered without reason by unknown entities. Not only are the comments untrue and unless people contact me and verify the true story behind things, calling people a name or slandering a business is illegal and thus unacceptable to me.
As you control this forum I friendly ask you to remove all content to this effect. Should this not be removed by you by Thursday March 15th, we will seek legal actions against you personally and snowandmud.com.
Thanks
XXXXXXX.

I will most likely remove the posts, I was reading the VBullitin registration when you log on as a new user and it limit's the liability.. Should I have some type of Insurance to protect against this issue??

RON

[Vile]

Here's what they emailed me



I will most likely remove the posts, I was reading the VBullitin registration when you log on as a new user and it limit's the liability.. Should I have some type of Insurance to protect against this issue??

RON

If you want to play it safe, and resolve this issue the easiest way, then you should comply and remove the posts. If what the users wrote is indeed true, then he's got nothing. The owner of the hotel is merely using scare tactics to try and get you to comply, but it may not even be worth your time to fight it/pursue it, even though you are in the right.

To clarify though, you don't actually have to remove them, and it's not slander, if the statements are true. Slander and libel are statements that are untrue/false.

[briangumble]

If it were me I wouldn't remove the posts. I don't succumb to threats that easily. And I highly doubt they can sue you for that.

[Floris]

"freedom of speech"

First of all I would read up on what this exactly means. The users on your forum have no freedom of speech. It is YOUR forum and you have the freedom to do whatever you want with the posts they leave on your site.

If someone asks you to remove content and you agree than you are free to do so. If the user posting the content disagrees; that's it. They only disagree. They can't sue you for removing something that no longer belongs to them. They are the author of the post, but the content of your forum is yours.

Freedom of speech has nothing to do with this at all.

[JakeS]

All depends if its true or false if its false remove it, if their true then they have nothing and you don't have to worry you have one day to decide.

[ManagerJosh]

So as long as you are not taking an official stance nor anyone is making an official comment on behalf of your site, I wouldn't worry so much. Kindly point out to the owner that there is a) freedom of speech, but b) that all posts are respective views of their owners.

[Floris]

Freedom of speech is the concept of the inherent human right to voice one's opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment. The right is enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is granted formal recognition by the laws of most nations. Nonetheless the degree to which the right is upheld in practice varies greatly from one nation to another. In some nations with relatively authoritarian forms of government, overt government censorship is enforced, while among liberal democracies, censorship has been claimed to occur in a different form (see propaganda model) and there are different approaches to issues such as hate speech, obscenity, and defamation laws.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech

[bboy]

If the negative posts are true and not lies then they can't do anything. Correct me if I'm wrong but if a member said "They sneak into your room and touch your genitals" but is in fact not true then you can be sued.

You make it sound like that's a bad thing. Find me a hotel where they do that and book me for the weekend!

[rknight111]

Thanks for all your response. Its not worth any problems with anyone. But I'll post what I feel about this post and the freedom issue since that applies in Canada too. I see the owner is upset about this which is good, mabie he may realize why he is loosing customers. I will note to the guy that if the topic comes up again and again I wont be removing the content he will have to come on and comment himself to clairify.. I will remove the complete thread at the end of the day..

RON

[Neal-UK]

Get your members to prove their comments are true, then let him take it to court.

[Reeve of Shinra]

I dont know about Canada but in the USA at least your site/forums is classified as an information service (like an ISP) and you are protected to the a certain degree from such legal actions.

In the US, at most, he would be able to file a request to try to obtain information about the poster(s) in order to establish their identity so they can file said slander suit against them.

Furthermore, (again in the US) the threat of a lawsuit would allow you to file proactively to dismiss such claims in YOUR local court.

Lastly, I wouldn't acknowledge the letter or any communication until such time as you received an official legal correspondence via the snail-mail.

If you feel its in the best interest to remove the thread then that is your perogotive but since the guy came off being a jerk, I would post a thread expressing that several members have had negative experiences at this establishment. Keep it short and sweet and you can easilly remove the slander angle he was attempting to establish.

[rnmcd]

So who is responsible if a member makes a libelous post? The owner of the forum or the member that made the post?

[Jose Amaral Rego]

Owner of forum, if you live in Canada & United States of America. Someone already has sued a board with blog about malicious comments. Printed press gets sued quite often. You are not protected in any such way and you will be a defendant if you keep this on your forum, as you have control over what is said.