Site-Owner responsibilities

Marcus.Aurelius wrote: »

Hi,

Just a question please, what are the legalities surrounding responsibility for websites that include forums in ROI?

Does responsibility lie soley with the site-owners for the content of any user's posts, or does the user share responsibility for the content of their posts?

I know that Ireland is very odd in this regard, and would appreciate any observations or information. I recognise this is a hot subject, and am not trying to sh*t-stir or cause any problems, so if this thread is out of bounds, please lock/delete as appropriate.

Ireland is not the only one grappling with unprecedented legal issues popping up from new technologies. There are many facets regarding responsibility - are you referring to any in particular?

From recollection, the main ones are
* Data protection / privacy. E.g. In the European case of Lindqvist a users post on a website (regarding a foot injury) constituted an illegal transfer of sensitive personal data to third countries and the site owner was fined.

* Defamation. In Dow Jones v. Gutnik the Australian plaintiff's defamation claim was upheld in the US as this was the location of the publication servers. Threw up a whole spate of jurisdiction issues.

* Intellectual property. E.g. AllofMP3.com was attacked with a suit from the Recording Association of America with a claim for damages of US$1.65 trillion. (calculated as $150,000 for every breach of intellectual property between two specified dates) Case later withdrawn and AllofMP3 folded due in part to the removal of it's merchant payment services offered by Visa and Mastercard, American pressure against Russian WTO membership. Legislation in Denmark was introducted imploring Danish ISP's to block the site from users in that country also.

I'm sure other posters have a host of much more informative case law on these issues, but generally speaking the area is undeveloped.

Many prominent discussion forums are administered (like this one). While I'm not familiar with the exact particulars of internet defamation cases , I know there have been varying degrees of success for plaintiffs involved with same. Presumably, the sites moderate their users in a "prevention is better than cure" style, ensuring they are not affixed with liability in the absense of legislation or solid precedent.