Do forums qualify as ASP?

What do you think it would take to make a forum into an ASP?

[blaze]

Found this recent article interesting:

Is Wikipedia safe from libel liability? [news.com.com]

In order to avoid legal liability, what do you think it would take to make a forum into an ASP?

Furthermore, if everyone has anonymous identities, can they libel each other?

[trillianjedi]

There's something about that which doesn't sit right with me.

How can you say that wikipedia doesn't publish anything? They may not author it, but they make it available for public viewing - is that not "publishing"?

[blaze]

"It's a fascinating issue," she said. "Because here you have Wikipedia, which is a great thing, which was able to flourish and thrive because of the absence of liability. On the other hand, the collaborative, decentralized nature of it means pieces of it are broken, and it's unavoidable. So the question is what can we do to stop this in the future and at what price?"

I thought that was interesting. However, I guess, a lot of people around here probably don't like Wikipedia too much..

[rogerd]

My non-lawyer opinion is that most forums are SPs, since members can post without editing or moderation.

I think the key point is this: "One of the reasons Congress passed the (CDA) was to encourage service providers and other who make their space on the Internet available to do monitoring without assuming liability..." To me, that means that you can moderate your forum without automatically assuming full liability for every bit of content on it.

As far as an anonymous poster being libeled, I doubt if ScarecrowDude could sue the forum if Moondog66 called him a liar and a fool. But, if Moondog66 posted a lengthy diatribe along the lines of "Acme Widgets is a SCAM, and will file for bankruptcy next month", Acme Widgets, Inc., might have a case against someone. One hopes that the target of the suit would be ol' Moondog66, and at most the forum owner would have to provide identifying info if so ordered by a court.

[rogerd]

One other factor, IMO as a non-lawyer, is whether a moderated forum exercises reasonable care. For instance, if someone reports a false statement to you, do you take prompt action to investigate and correct/remove it? If you do so, someone is going to have fewer grounds to sue you. Be sure you've got a reasonable contact mechanism on your site. If you don't relish lawsuits, prohibt content that could be problematic in your TOS and remove it promptly when it is called to your attention.

Note that being "right" may have little to do with your not getting sued. A deep-pockets opponent can sue and wreak havoc with you even if you prevail in the final judgment.

[blaze]

Yeah, that's a good point. Sometimes it's more important just to avoid the mess, as right as you might be.