Boards Admin running scared from MCD

Polski

So I gather free speech is banned from this site now eh? Grow some balls ffs lads :rolleyes:

DeVore

lol. sigh.

DeV.

Rabies

he he he.....

/gets popcorn

DeVore

Hey, here's an idea.... you create a site and I'll supply you with every last word of the posts that were put up here. You have to do so, non-anonymously so you are as much in the line of fire as we are. Then we'll see who has balls.

You game?

DeV.

Agent Smith

this will be good....



Rumble in the Jungle good

Sparky

Polski wrote:

So I gather free speech is banned from this site now eh? Grow some balls ffs lads :rolleyes:

Will you pay their legal fees?
It's not that easy.

SoBe

/ pulls up a chair

Rabies

Sparky-s wrote:

Will you pay their legal fees?
It's not that easy.

That is where the excess (if any) subscription money is going

SoBe wrote:

/ pulls up a chair

/Knocks SoBe off the chair

Ahhhh.... comfy...

Gordon

Polski wrote:

So I gather free speech is banned from this site now eh? Grow some balls ffs lads :rolleyes:

Not quite banned yet, watch this -> You are a twat.

Orion

Polski wrote:

So I gather free speech is banned from this site now eh? Grow some balls ffs lads :rolleyes:

Nope. Not banned. You can't ban something that never existed.

Muppet++

[edit]Prickski: In case you weren't aware - the owners of boards.ie, who by a sheer coincidence are the directors of Boards.ie Ltd., are liable for anything said on this site. You may think that's crazy (possibly cos it is!) but that's the law in this country. If a legal threat is made against them for something you or I or anyone says then they have to deal with it appropriately. Now go and read the last couple of posts in the other thread - specifically the one about MCD not even knowing about their solicitors letter. Kinda of reminds me of the muppet in Fox who commenced legal action against the Simpsons for slagging Fox. Only to find out that The Simpsons are made by ... you guessed it ... Fox!

SoBe

/ nicks rabies popcorn mmmmmmmmmm yummy

ecksor

Please point me to where we claimed you ever had free speech here!

DeVore

Hey, here's an idea.... you create a site and I'll supply you with every last word of the posts that were put up here. You have to do so, non-anonymously so you are as much in the line of fire as we are. Then we'll see who has balls.

You game?

This book might help you...

DeV.

Orion

Dev - are you suggesting we encourage him to actually speak in public?

Asok

No wonder your wife left you.

DeVore

I'm suggesting that he too can avail of this new medium called the internet and publish things he's supportive of and take the consequences on himself.
He can show us how its done...

Oh and this new site, has to have an unmoderated way for anyone to post onto it. Like... oh, I dunno, a bulletin board. I'll install it for him so that there is no problem with the technology aspect of it, for a fee of 1 cent to the SSF.

DeV.

honru

We had "free speech" once... but that was taken away by ***. We can only respond in kind.

InFront

That was either an in-joke or you've just brought things to a whole new level tbh:D

So let me get this right - if I libelously defame a company or individual on boards.ie, and they sue for damages, you are legally responsible? Even though I am a completely anonymous member of the public and might live in some mountainy pass in Afghanistan for all you know. That doesnt seem fair... does the 'plaintiff' have any sort of case against the poster, or is it just the host site?

Ruu_Old

Polski for admin! DeV, you are due some time off.

Asok

InFront wrote:

That was either an in-joke or you've just brought things to a whole new level tbh:D

So let me get this right - if I libelously defame a company or individual on boards.ie, and they sue for damages, you are legally responsible? Even though I am a completely anonymous member of the public and might live in some mountainy pass in Afghanistan for all you know. That doesnt seem fair... does the 'plaintiff' have any sort of case against the poster, or is it just the host site?

Yep, Boards.ie as the publisher is held responcible under irish law.

Gordon

I would love to post freely on Polski's new bulletin board. I am presuming that such a free speech website would be giving it's customers 400x400px avatars and unlimited signatures? I can't wait to finally post freely and unshackle myself from this confined burden of a website. Not being able to say whatever I want about whatever company I want is extrememely annoying.

I will promise to bring Paddy20 and Polmkii with me also.
xx

Orion

Just against the host site aka the publisher. You can say what you want and DeV, Cloud et al will get their asses sued off while you sit back and laugh.

Believe it ... or not [/Ripley]

InFront

Macros42 wrote:

Just against the host site aka the publisher. You can say what you want and DeV, Cloud et al will get their asses sued off while you sit back and laugh.

Believe it ... or not [/Ripley]

Ok. Funny story. if you get a call from Brian Dobsons solicitors I'll just be erm... over there...

Seriously though thats a strange law. Do they get to stone you as well or is it just a public flogging

damien

Asok wrote:

Yep, Boards.ie as the publisher is held responcible under irish law.

It's still in the air about it actually. Up to a judge at the end of the day, but does Boards.ie want to go to court to find out how a 70year old Judge rules on something he knows nothing about?

dermot_sheehan

Will things change when the Defamation Bill 2006 is enacted?

Of particular note is the defence of innocent publication under section 25:

25.—(1) It shall be a defence (to be known as the “defence of
innocent publication”) to a defamation action for the defendant to
prove that— 5
(a) he or she was not the author, editor or publisher of the
statement to which the action relates,
(b) he or she took reasonable care in relation to its publication,
and
(c) he or she did not know, and had no reason to believe, that 10
what he or she did caused or contributed to the publication
of a statement that would give rise to a cause of
action in defamation.
(2) A person shall not, for the purposes of this section, be considered
to be the author, editor or publisher of a statement if— 15
(a) in relation to printed material containing the statement,
he or she was responsible for the printing, production,
distribution or selling only of the printed material,
(b) in relation to a film or sound recording containing the
statement, he or she was responsible for the processing, 20
copying, distribution, exhibition or selling only of the film
or sound recording,
(c) in relation to any electronic medium on which the statement
is recorded or stored, he or she was responsible for
the processing, copying, distribution or selling only of the 25
electronic medium or was responsible for the operation
or provision only of any equipment, system or service by
means of which the statement would be capable of being
retrieved, copied, distributed or made available.
(3) The court shall, for the purposes of determining whether a 30
person took reasonable care, or had reason to believe that what he
or she did caused or contributed to the publication of a defamatory
statement, have regard to—
(a) the extent of the person’s responsibility for the content of
the statement or the decision to publish it, 35
(b) the nature or circumstances of the publication, and
(c) the previous conduct or character of the person.

dermot_sheehan

damien.m wrote:

It's still in the air about it actually. Up to a judge at the end of the day, but does Boards.ie want to go to court to find out how a 70year old Judge rules on something he knows nothing about?

I don't think there's any doubt about boards being considered a publisher under current irish law. A publisher is anyone who imputes the defamatory statement to a party other then the person it is defamatory about. So for example a book seller could be considered a publisher (though there is a defence under the 1961 act for book/newspaper sellers if they did not know and should not have reasonably know the publication they were distributing was defamatory). Similarly the author of a letter that is defamatory about someone is considered a publisher.

With such a wide interpretation of "publisher" I suspect boards.ie would most certainly be categorised as one.

Also this demeaning statement about our judiciary is unfounded (not withstanding that they are typically not that old, mandatory retirement for Supreme Court judges being at 72). Judges have to decide complex intellectual property cases and do understand the issues involved. I think it's a demeaning and prejudicial statement to say that just because someone is old they can't understand technology.

DeVore

Innocent publication is certainly a defence. Until the defamation is brought to our attention at which time the "innocent" part of that defence dissappears, along with the defence

We have some of the finest legal minds over on the Legal Discussion forum (no, I'm not taking the mick, they really ARE that good!) who give us a steer on this sort of thing. If you want to read more about our barmy laws, head over there.

DeV.

lostexpectation

fair play to counter shushing them for a week :cool:

BuffyBot

Polski wrote:

So I gather free speech is banned from this site now eh? Grow some balls ffs lads :rolleyes:

www.polski.ie/forum going to be up anytime soon? I'm waiting too..I have soooooooooooo much to say about companies!

humanji

What happens if someone liables boards.ie? I'm thinking the world ends, in the same way as if you try to delete the recycle bin on your desktop! :eek:

WhiteWashMan

Polski wrote:

So I gather free speech is banned from this site now eh? Grow some balls ffs lads :rolleyes:

idiot.

on

so

many

levels.

wingnut

Why not get some patsy in another jurasticion to host such a site for the purpose of putting up the comments you can't put up here. If it is hosted outside the jurisdiciton there is fup all they can do about it.

Did anyone read the disclaimer on the website of a 'certain' promoter/music festival:

The Opinions, Views and Comments expressed by the members of this website are their own and do not necessarily state or reflect those of [Our promotions company / festival] does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of these messages and opinions, and does not perform an independent investigation to verify their truth or accuracy.

All posted messages are the sole responsibility of the person from which such post originated. [Out promotions company /f estival assumes no liability in any way for the content of any posted message or opinion, including, but not limited to, any errors or ommissions in any posted message.

tba

Yeah why cant we have a similar disclaimer? Is it just BS?

Asok

A disclaimer like that would hold very little water afaik.

Crash

I dont think you can legally tick away anything legally binding online either.

eth0_

Asok wrote:

Yep, Boards.ie as the publisher is held responcible under irish law.

Responsible for what exactly?
Someone's opinion that something terrible might happen at poxegen next year? Their opinion is based on (rather unsettling) facts.


Obviously I can't say verbatim what it was that offended the prissy pants lawyers, or I shall be sued.

Anyway, I actually hope they continue their lame censorship crusade to rid the internet of anything negative about the festival, because they're doing far, far more PR damage to their organisation than anyone else! :-)

Tar.Aldarion

tba wrote:

Yeah why cant we have a similar disclaimer? Is it just BS?

Talking to my lawyer sis about net laws a while back and it's because you may as well wipe your ass with that disclaimer for all the good it would do. The laws here are ridiculous.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

wingnut

Yes, electronic disclaimers are not worth the paper they are written on

Sparky

BuffyBot wrote:

www.polski.ie/forum going to be up anytime soon? I'm waiting too..I have soooooooooooo much to say about companies!

lol, time to register methinks.

DeVore

So Polski?? What about it?

All mouth and no trousers...

DeV.

Sparky

DeVore wrote:

All mouth and no trousers...

Jesus thats a good one.

On another note I see can how all this gets to you, I would'nt blame you.

The fact that a number of users think that they can say anything about anyone (especially a certain company) online and think thats its terms of free speech is one thing. But at the end of the day while mr/mrs user X,Y,Z can say something, it does not come back to them. There is no real name and address in their profile. So like anything else on this site it all comes back to the owners aka boards.ie ltd.

This is where people have to distinguish between speech and "free speech"

Karl Hungus

Just an excuse to post a funny image really.

DeVore

I actually strongly believe in the right of people to post what they want on this site and then stand over it. I've always said "you own your own words" but unfortunately the law doesnt (yet) see it that way. The lawyers know that pressurising the person to remove it is just not going to work so they shoot at us because we're the easy target. The fact is that weekly we have to stand over some things and let other things go. We have to pick our fights and you sometimes the people who get all legal on us have a point, you cant simply go around saying damaging things unless they are TRUE. In this case I believe they were but we cant know that and certainly cant prove it.

This week we've had 4 legal letters from 4 sources, we've responded to them differently from saying "go f yourselves" to partial retractions to complete removals. In this case we are not in the slightest bit happy about it and they have galvinised the admins to find some way to fight back if we can. But we need to do it in a way that ensure the 99.9% of the content and communication this site provides doesnt become their latest "acquisition".

Why do you think Eircom, Esat, Ireland.com etc dont have huge boards sites like us? Why do you think the rest of the internet world in Ireland is allowing boards.ie such a huge headstart in this area of the internet world...
Boards.ie in the hands of unscrupulous marketeers would be an ABSOLUTE GOLDMINE.... don't you think at least someone would have gone "jesus I think I'll have one of those community thingies too!"

DeV.

DeVore

http://www.polski.ie/bb/

Let the fun and games begin...

DeV.

Ruu_Old

Brilliant, registered.

DeVore

Polski, you also need to publically put your contact details on that site. ie: you cant do this anonymously, we dont get to. And you *know* I'm going to verify them too

DeV.

grimloch

Is he able to see his users passwords on that site? That could lead to an unimaginable amount of trouble.

BuffyBot

Now brothers, we are free from opression! Go forth to polski.ie and tell the world of your troubles..with no need to hold back!!!

The Sweeper

Actually my Polish friends would like to lodge the first lawsuit for the potentially racist nature of the site's url.

parsi

That site is so coolski . I can't wait to see it kick the asski (or should that be ascii) of all them capitalist types.

/anyone seen my coat...?