Question about Banning Members

what are legal options for banning a member

[Tom_Steele]

Hi,

I have seen several threads about how to deal with offensive members.

They seem to keep coming back like plague.

Many creative solutions were suggested, but what about legal solutions.

Would the following method be of any use?

I have researched harrassment on message boards on the Internet. After blocking your harassing messages, I have now found out the only thing further I need to do is formally email you and tell you that you are no longer welcome to post on the message board at www.example.com located at the following URL [example.com...] And continuing to do so is Internet harrasment. I have tracked your IP addresses and numbers and if you continue to post I will contact your service providers.

Any thoughts?

TIA,

[edited by: rogerd at 12:54 am (utc) on Jan. 9, 2005]
[edit reason] examplified [/edit]

[rogerd]

First, be sure your terms of service are properly written so that objectionable behavior (and the consequences) are clear. When you encounter a problem member, document the violations of your TOS, being sure to record the times and IPs.

The first step (if the problem member ignores your letter) could be to go to the offender's ISP. Most ISPs have abuse policies, and they may shut down this person when presented with clear-cut evidence. Of course, some ISPs may not cooperate, but it's a start.

Further legal action may get tricky and expensive. If you don't know the identity of the person, you may need a court order to get the ISP to disclose it. If you do know the identity, you'll probably have to sue them in civil court unless you can find a law that the person has broken and someone in law enforcement who cares.

Good luck, and welcome to WebmasterWorld!

[Tom_Steele]

Thanks for the reply. Does anyone here even know if it is breaking a law to try and get around the bans?

And what if they are using an anonymiser? How difficult would it be for me to find the identity from there?

Thanks for the help!

[wheel]

IANAL, but I doubt it's illegal. But who knows. The real point is that you can't ever really ban someone. They will get back in, either with anonymizer, or one of the hundreds of other anonymous proxies.

The only way to prevent it is to keep banning and watch the new user registrations closely. Outlast their patience.

[rogerd]

While there are some laws that might affect specific behavior, e.g., a member posting pornographic images on your site, my non-lawyer opinion is that this is a civil matter. Even if you could find something that broke a criminal statute, I'd be surprised if you could find anyone in law enforcement who was remotely interested. Even issues like credit card fraud and theft by fraudulent ordering are tough to pursue.

Ban, ban, and ban again. You have the tools as admin to track IPs, mass delete, etc., and eventually your problem members will go away. It's no fun if every time they resurface their garbage vanishes and they have to re-register and find a new IP address.

There have been past discussions on the topic of problem members, but one thing you can do is slow down the registration process, i.e., put new registrations on mod/admin review and let it take 24 hours. This inconveniences legitimate new members (not good), but it really puts a crimp in troublemakers. After the problem fades, you can loosen up registration again.