website publishing liability

[Bar]

Morning all, currently engaged in a full scale debate on another website surrounding the issue of liability for published content on a website.

Within their forums a number of subjects are being discussed which I feel place the position of the forum owner in jeopardy – primarily the areas are: Medical, Warez, ongoing legal cases. I am of the understanding that as the forum is moderated and the content published as well as the T&C’s of the forum stating that all text etc submitted and published becomes the sole property of the website – the website owners are therefore liable and potentially open to litigation/prosecution.

Is this correct? If it is are there any links to where this is confirmed. I have done a number of searches but only found articles intimating that it is. I know that there is not a lot of caselaw and is quite a grey subject. I also know that these subjects are all banned from these forums. Is it for the reason I have stated above?

Cheers,

 

[Berserker]

I can confirm that the discussion of such subjects here is banned for the reasons you state. The rest I cannot help you with (except that I'm aware of a few cases, particularly but not exclusively in the USA - the Wikipedia one being the most recent).

 

[Borris]

Moderation is not a defence against or implication of liabilty - just look at Slashdot and the M$ source code affair.

The Daemon internet case was landmark in terms of liability for defamatory remarks - the crux being that Daemon lost common-carrier status when they refused to remove libellous material, once informed (a number of times) of its existence on their servers.

With regards medical / warez - most forum owners might avoid such discussion in order to mitigate liability - it may not be strictly necessary, nor might it be strictly successful.

I'm not aware of any specific legislation existing (such is the slow moving nature of the legislative government, when there is no glory to be attained), although there may be some basis in case law (such as cases of defamation - Daemon Internet, or the Popbitch Beckham affair, settled by a cease and desist).

Most of the time, it's defamation that causes trouble - discussing "illegal" activities has never really raised its head, at least not in the news, except when it is after the fact.