Questions of Liability

[Vern2008]

I am contemplating creating a Community based website & Forum that would give details about the place I live to fellow natives as well as tourists, what little there are. Information along the lines of What to See, Where to eat, Where to sleep type of thing. Both from the prospective of the patrons as well as the business owners.

My question is, as the webmaster, site owner for this website, including the publicly accessible forum where people from almost anywhere are able to post about said topics, what is my legal responsibility? Am I legally responsible for what a restaraunt patron says about a restaraunt owner's establishment? How do I know when it crosses the line into slander?

Basically, what legal responsibility do I as the webmaster, site owner have to the general public's postings on a publicly available website forum?

My intention here is to not cause harm or undue stress to a person owning a business, but rather to critique, whether good or bad experience, from the actual patron's experience which would be available to the local general public, the business owner as well as the possible tourist.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

The question you are asking isn't so simple to answer in short. To begin, most important is for you to create an appropriate terms of use and privacy policy. You need to enforce the terms when you become aware of issues. For the most part, lawsuits don't happen if you respond appropriately. People also have a right to express their opinions. With regard to defamation such as libel (it wouldn't be slander if written), you should not edit posts and delete only if they do not conform with your terms of use. You should not be a publisher of information but an online service provider who reacts to specific complaints in a timely fashion. The two landmark cases are:

STRATTON OAKMONT, INC. V. PRODIGY SERVICES CO.
1995 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 229, 1995 WL 323710, 23 Media L. Rep. 1794 (N.Y.
Sup. Ct. May 24, 1995)

Cubby, Inc. v. CompuServe, Inc. (90 Civ. 6571, SDNY)

Stratton effectively overruled Cubby and found liability of the forum owner for defamation for not policing that which was allegedly clear and where significant damage occurred. Unless you're running a very highly trafficked site, much of the time damages will be so limited that a lawsuit isn't worth the time. It's about timely administration. There are other issues to discuss here but this is the gist of how I see the business generally run.

 

[Vern2008]

Thank you for replying and for the info. I am still thinking about this. Thanks again.