Forum Moderators: phranque
My Whois info is all correct except that my last name is not my legal last name. If the company files a law suite against me and it will turn up that I am using a pseudonym, can I find myself in any legal trouble? Please note that I am not trying to hide but just have reasons not to use my legal name in the public records.
thank you for any advice.
Most hosts have an anonymity option (if yours doesn't, then change!).
What do you mean 'lose your site'?
It means that the courts could force you to remove the site from the Internet. In my local area we have a daily newspaper that thinks it should run the city instead of simply publishing the news. It is family owned and there are many people very critical of this family.
One day a web site appeared the seriously criticized members of this family that were involved with the publishing of the paper and interfering in city politics. The family and newspaper naturally sued, but found out the registration info for the domain was all false. The courts did not know who was behind the site and forced the hosting company to take it down.
I realize your case is not exactly the same, but it is similar so you can take from this what you will.
If you think that hiding your identity will allow you to attack someone via your site, be warned that if they have a decent lawyer, and money, you will not escape the law.
Harassment and libel are just as deprecated on the web as they are in the real world, and - often - much easier to prosecute.
I'd worry less about the security of the site, and your name, and more about being able to justify the comments that appear on your site.
Is it 'defamatory' or fact? Can you convince a judge?
If you are justified, then 'free speech' goes a long way ... but if you cannot justify the comments, then it's long past the time you needed to be paying a lawyer.
