Webmaster Charged Under Patriot Act

Implications for blogs and forums?

[freejung]

Have you guys seen this? Apparently, webmaster Sami Omar al-Hussayen is being charged under the Patriot Act for maintaining websites in which others have posted comments advocating jihad. (NYT article: [nytimes.com...] ) What implications does this have for the webmasters of blogs and forums? Are they now required to vigorously and proactively censor their users in order to avoid prosecution?

[Rosalind]

I notice the article mentions links to other websites. This seems to suggest that Americans have to be careful to monitor the content of sites they link to, as well as keeping an eye on what people post in forums. It's hard enough checking that all your links are live, never mind every page of those sites in case one has been taken over by a terrorist organisation.

In practice there are two approaches to forums and blogs: dealing with problems only if they are pointed out to you, or monitoring everything. There are going to be fewer legal problems if you insist on approving everything before it goes online, but that method is far too labour-intensive to maintain for a lot of sites.

I do wonder how much Sami Omar al-Hussayen's name and Saudi origins had to do with that trial?

[Mark_A]

I suggest Catch 22 is a good book for anyone wondering about these issues :-)

Better and perhaps more on topic, take a careful read of the terms of service of this site and perhaps others and take legal advice :-)

[skippy]

Spooky... I am glad I do not have a forum. Brett does have a very nice legal piece on the bottom of every page

Member comments are owned by the poster