Author sues forum

Claims defamation and seeks to shut down site

[Syzygy]

This story's receiving quite a bit of coverage in the UK presently - a "well known" author (never heard of her) of childcare books claims that comments posted in a forum are defamatory ("vicious libels") and, although the site in question has deleted posts where appropriate and even banned any mention of said author, is seeking to have the site taken down, claiming that the site itself - and not the posters - are responsible (and thus liable for any damages).

The site may have to shut as it does not have the funds to mount a legal battle.

The founders of [the site] claim they have taken all possible steps to ensure [the author] is not abused in its discussion forums and delete any unpleasant comments as soon as they are brought to their attention.

From the Daily Mail [dailymail.co.uk].

It'll be interesting to see how this one pans out, especially bearing in mind the mass media exposure the story's gained.

Syzygy

[BigDave]

Sounds like a great opportunity for someone to open up a similar forum in another country, and let everyone on that forum know.

Taking a stand to defend yourself can work. But if your stand is too hard-line on the internet, you run the risk of becoming a laughing stock and the target of ridicule.

[hunderdown]

I think that libel laws are quite different in the UK and US, and that may have an effect. Basically, it's easier to prove libel in the UK and harder to use free speech as a defense....

[Syzygy]

One of the reasons why I think this is interesting is that it's, to the best of my knowledge, possibly one of the first high(-ish) profile cases of this kind in terms of UK media exposure.

What I've noticed so far is that none of the mainstream media have commented on how/where the law stands in such scenarios: for example, are forum posts the responsibility of the poster or the forum - and where does liability for any defamation fall? It's as if there are no existing guidelines in place.

Can one simply complain to an ISP and have a site banished from the web - even though that have done all they can to comply with any/all requests? Where's the comment from the ISP; what's their stand on this I wonder?

In general terms what is the legal position in such situations - are there clear guidlelines or precedents?

Syzygy

[edited by: Syzygy at 6:25 pm (utc) on Aug. 8, 2006]

[Quadrille]

The 'general' situation is that forum managers do not have to premoderate or get legal advice for every post; but they do have to act in a timely manner when made aware of naughty posts - if they removed defamatory posts within 24-48 hours, no court would order the site closed.

My reading of this story is that many of the posts were personal, rather than discussions of the authors methods, and the site argued with thousands of posts per day, they couldn't be expected to find a handful of bad ones - and so have failed to remove personal insults when asked to. Repeatedly.

If that's right (and I don't know - it's my interpretation of a rather loosely worded article), then the site has no defense; there are precedents of sites being closed for failing to self-police.

This one has made a stack of money over the years- maybe they need to invest in someone to build a moderator scheme - like me, f'rinstance ;o)

Note to mod - that's a joke; I wouldn't take the job if offered, honest!

[edited by: Quadrille at 6:37 pm (utc) on Aug. 8, 2006]

[Rightz]

I saw on the news (here in the UK) that in the US for a post on a forum - the author of that particular post is libel, in the UK the webmaster is libel.

That seriously sucks for us british webmasters. With such a ground breaking case I hope they readdress this law to be slightly more realistic for forum owners.

[Rightz]

In adition - if you were the competition to a particular forum - wouldn't you just post a libel message on there - then complain and have the site shut down. Compeition gone!

[Quadrille]

That's NOT the case in the UK, unless the webmaster fails to act on reasonable complaints.

Any webmaster who hosts a 'hate' forum is at risk; a responsible webmaster would get volunteer moderators. Like, er, this one.

And any decent forum would stop trolls, wouldn't they ;)

[edited by: Quadrille at 6:40 pm (utc) on Aug. 8, 2006]

[Syzygy]

A-ha! Lots of insight courtesy of statements from both parties here [gm.tv]

Syzygy

[wmuser]

Even if UK laws are different,taking a website down for such small issue is unacceptable
The one could post some xx author's quotes on any forum and then take it down

[walkman]

"One mother wrote that Miss Ford 'straps babies to rockets and fires them into south Lebanon'. Others branded her cruel and uncaring or questioned her personal hygiene."

from the article its hard to really judge, but looks like she would be laughed at here in US if she made such a claim. This seems either stuff no one takes seriously (the rocket thing), or an opinion. To make matters worse, if she was famous here, Jay Leno would make fun of her weight for at least two weeks.

Let's hope a law firm takes the site's case pro-bono as a free speech issue. If you preach to others about how to raise their kids (especially when you have none), get ready to get some unpleasant comments back.