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OK, besides this site I belong to a site that deals with amusement parks. The other day on their board I had posted a message about how bad my time was at Six Flags America ( rude employees, high prices, etc...).
The next day I had received a message from their moderator saying that I was "banned for 2 months" and that my message was deleted because "....sorry but we don't want to get sued by Six Flags for slander and I am sure you don't want too either..."
OK according to this person if I say that Six Flags "sucks"..then Six Flags would sue the site, and me for slander. That is almost as funny as my co-worker was banned from one site because, well this quote got her banned ".....I stopped watching FOX sometime ago because their shows are trash"...the webmaster was so scared that FOX would sue over that comment that she was banned "for life".
Should people who run websites/boards know at least some basic legal 101 such as when free speech ends and when slander/libel begins?
But this is today's America, Land of the Offended. Tragically, the crybabies and hypersensitive PC nazis rule the day, and perhaps even worse, a large % of the country run like scared rabbits in their wake. Admittedly this is thanks in part to our brilliant legal system, but often that's a weak excuse. God forbid someone should criticize anything any more, or be permitted to. No, to heck with free speech and speaking your mind. These people would rather we all turn into blind, mindless Barney the Dinosaurs, with an insipid smile on our face, always saying everything is golly gee whiz wonderful.
:vomit:
[Mod edited]
Last edited by TnHilltopper; 06-24-2010 at 04:54 PM..
Reason: No discussion of forum moderation on the forum per TOS
I used to run what was referred to as a "hate" site (it wasn't really, but that's how it was characterized) about a certain national retail chain. During that time, I was involved in two different lawsuits with that company, neither of which had anything to do with anything anybody wrote in the forums, and some pretty nasty stuff was said.
Amusing side note - their attorneys wrote something disparaging about my attorneys in the forum once, and had to issue a public apology for it, which I kept up on the site until I closed it down.
OK, besides this site I belong to a site that deals with amusement parks. The other day on their board I had posted a message about how bad my time was at Six Flags America ( rude employees, high prices, etc...).
The next day I had received a message from their moderator saying that I was "banned for 2 months" and that my message was deleted because "....sorry but we don't want to get sued by Six Flags for slander and I am sure you don't want too either..."
OK according to this person if I say that Six Flags "sucks"..then Six Flags would sue the site, and me for slander. That is almost as funny as my co-worker was banned from one site because, well this quote got her banned ".....I stopped watching FOX sometime ago because their shows are trash"...the webmaster was so scared that FOX would sue over that comment that she was banned "for life".
Should people who run websites/boards know at least some basic legal 101 such as when free speech ends and when slander/libel begins?
Free speech is protected in the public domain. The internet and all the forums on the net are NOT legally public domain.
So no, you can't say anything you want on the net or it's forums.
Should people who run websites/boards know at least some basic legal 101 such as when free speech ends and when slander/libel begins?
Most people who run websites and or discussion boards have neither the time nor money to fight any legal challenge so their solution is to be as safe as possible.
In addition, as someone else pointed out, these boards are not public domain. Someone is paying for you to have a place to share your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc. As such, they have every right to ban someone for whatever amount of time they think is appropriate or just block them completely.
Most people who run websites and or discussion boards have neither the time nor money to fight any legal challenge so their solution is to be as safe as possible.
Maybe so but say for example someone has a website about celebrities and a poster says online that "Larry The Cable Guy is an unfunny guy whose acting stinks". If the webmaster is so worried because he/she has this "idea" that Larry The Cable Guy would go as far as contacting his lawyers and try to sue over the post by claiming "libel"..well maybe it would be for the best that such people shouldn't have internet websites in the first place.
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