Lawsuit against forums?

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deltafox78

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Today I was told that a county was pushing a lawsuit against me over the means of my private forums. These forums are private, when I say that, I mean they are not listed off the main site and can only be found by entering the entire URL. The question I have is what exactly can they charge me with? These forums talk about people running a county in a general aspect (good or bad). Along the same lines, I have a legal disclaimer for those forums:

Here are the highlights which are stated in this disclaimer:

"These forums are for private use only. Posts contained within are opinions of interest that are openly expressed with those who deem to listen with open ears."

*yada, yada* and again says:
The purpose of these forums:
These forums, again, are intended for personal use. They are protected by 'Freedom of Speech' to any US citizen. Everything posted within is to be taken as opinion and not fact.

More general terms, and finally states:
Furthermore, since I cannot control the opinions of other people and as stated in the disclaimer, posts contained within on these private forums are 'personal opinions' of the poster(s). Therefore, anything contained on this BBS does not fall on the responibilities of myself nor the foriegn company hosting my server.

Since these forums and it's diclaimer state that all posts are opinions of the users, how does this fall under any Libal laws (Slander doesn't apply since it's called 'an oral defamation of character')?
 
deltafox78 said:
Today I was told that a county was pushing a lawsuit against me over the means of my private forums. These forums are private, when I say that, I mean they are not listed off the main site and can only be found by entering the entire URL. The question I have is what exactly can they charge me with? These forums talk about people running a county in a general aspect (good or bad). Along the same lines, I have a legal disclaimer for those forums:

Here are the highlights which are stated in this disclaimer:

"These forums are for private use only. Posts contained within are opinions of interest that are openly expressed with those who deem to listen with open ears."

*yada, yada* and again says:
The purpose of these forums:
These forums, again, are intended for personal use. They are protected by 'Freedom of Speech' to any US citizen. Everything posted within is to be taken as opinion and not fact.

More general terms, and finally states:
Furthermore, since I cannot control the opinions of other people and as stated in the disclaimer, posts contained within on these private forums are 'personal opinions' of the poster(s). Therefore, anything contained on this BBS does not fall on the responibilities of myself nor the foriegn company hosting my server.

Since these forums and it's diclaimer state that all posts are opinions of the users, how does this fall under any Libal laws (Slander doesn't apply since it's called 'an oral defamation of character')?
A couple of things:

(1) I highly doubt that anyone can prevent you or anyone else from putting up forum software. The type of content that it is generating is a different issue.

(2) Law in your jurisdication may deal with content issues. For example, if you are informed that data on your web site constitutes a copyright violation, you may not absolve yourself from liability by claiming you didn't put it there. It's your web site. The law in many jurisdictions may make you liable for not removing this material on a timely basis and could potentially charge you as a "contributory" infringer, or one who contributes to an an infringement claim.

One of the myths is that if you make a legal disclaimer that unlawful posts are not in your control but the control of the poster, you will be exonerated from liability. This is not true and the law in your jurisdiction will govern. Chances are there are a number of rules you will need to be aware of, such as copyright.
 
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