legal info on online forums

October 9, 2006 9:02 PM

my friend started an online forum about bikes and he would like some information so he won't be held responsible legally.

my friend started an online forum about bikes - this started out after him having a conversation with fellow cyclist friends about wanting to have a local community to trade bike parts, plan bike rides, or exchange information about bike maintenance and parts/frame quality, etc.

the forum has taken off and now it has over 400 members, meaning there are a lot of people that we don't know each other very well.

he's concerned that some of the random innocent posts that these people make might get him in trouble and would like to be prepared as well as post some legal disclaimer so he and the site is protected.

wondering if there's any information - anything legal, in regards to having and maintaining an online forum. such may include: privacy, what is allowed to be posted and what is not, what he is responsible for and what he is not, etc.

posted by grafholic to law & government (3 comments total)

If your friend is in the US, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act means that he's most likely not liable for anything anyone posts on his message board.
posted by falconred at 10:45 PM on October 9, 2006

His biggest worries are going to be threatened suit for slander or defamation--these are nearly always bogus, but can be avoided entirely by not allowing users to thrash on each other (spelled out in the terms of use). Violations of copyright is the other worry, which can be avoided by spelling out image use policy (ie, only upload photos you took) and how to get in touch if infringement has inadvertently taken place (ie, someone uploaded pictures they grabbed from someone else's web site). As long as he responds quickly to requests to remove legitimately infringing posts, the copyright holder is likely to be satisfied.

I've been threatened with two lawsuits (both over "copyright infringement"), both of which were just that, threats, completely bogus. Still not fun, but it didn't cost me anything other than a bit of heartburn.

The other thing he will want to be very careful about is talk about bad vendors. Business owners tend to be very quick off the mark in threatening suit for alleged "libel" and "loss of custom" and goddess knows what. I make it a policy to allow good reviews but have people simply say (in a thread about "Best Bike Shops," as an example) "I had an experience at Joe's Bikes, contact me by email to learn more" when they have a warning to pass on. Everyone knows the code, and Joe can't come down on you.
posted by maxwelton at 12:54 AM on October 10, 2006

Maybe he should, uh, call one of those people who specialises in legal disclaimers and such. Lawyers, I think they're known as.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 4:29 AM on October 10, 2006