he studied at "hong kong public school" and now he starts a site

[topgun]

Suppose a webmaster studied at "hong kong public school" and then he started a community website called "hkps.org"

The hkps.org website is about the community of teachers / parents / students / alumni

He started the website becuase the school wasnt doing enough about the community.

after 5 years is he going to have lawyers knocking at his door?

[the example used above is fictional]

[reuben101]

Depends on the language used. Best to run it by an attorney in the country in question to be sure. In many countries you can be sued for blinking funny ;)

[PatrickDeese]

I am not a legal expert by any means - but I believe that by placing disclaimers that your site is not in any manner affiliated with the official institution, etc etc, you can continue.

However, I believe that you will need to consult an attorney on.

[topgun]

Continuing our above fictional example .. the country happens to be USA.

How will the US laws treat a situation like this, if the dean of the school wanted to take control of the domain name since something bad was said about him in the community.

And the webmaster did not want to give up the domain.

[PatrickDeese]

As the forum charter [webmasterworld.com] suggests - the forum is no place to request legal advice.

If the site isn't worth paying a lawyer to consult on this issue - I would try removing the offending content (and notify them that said content has been removed), and review your disclaimers and make sure that it is understood that the site is not officially associated with this school etc etc.

[BigDave]

Since there are several similar cases in the courts right now, you might want to keep your eye on them and see what the judges say. They have more training than we do.

As always, if you are unwilling to fight them, they will win. And it can cost a lot to fight a group like the UC regents. It might not cost so much if you are fighting a local school district in rural mississippi