Message Boards or Discussion Groups

Loogie

So far, on Boards.ie, I have come across two separate forums that have forbidden users from discussing certain items/issues/topics/subjects. The extent to which this has been enforced verges on extreme and is almost absurd but is to protect Boards.ie from implication in legal prosecution, I assume.

The crux of the issue comes down to defintion of libel/slander and other similar terms along with the conditions under which these terms apply.

I have always considered message boards as discussion forums, as if I were making a point in a group meeting. I would not have considered it a published document such as a notice in a newspaper.

Is it fair to constrict the discussion on a forum because it is being treated as a published document? If so, then how else are we to disseminate views or discuss contentious issues?

Would it be possible to set up a members only areas, where only registered users could view discussions openly and in this way allow the discussion to be treated as a minuted meeting/discussion rather than a published work?

Is there any circumstance where we could we then talk about whatever we wanted to?

Steve

First, this belongs in feedback.

There is no 'free speech' on boards as it is a privately owned site and as such the owners rightly reserve the right to censor anything and everything they see fit.
The fact that this is a moderated forum implies a certain responsibility for the content and therefore the owners must curtail to an extent what is posted here.

Last time I looked, the internet is pretty big so if there are are certain things you wish to discuss that are not alllowed here then feel free to explore.:)

Loogie

stevec wrote: »

First, this belongs in feedback.

There is no 'free speech' on boards as it is a privately owned site and as such the owners rightly reserve the right to censor anything and everything they see fit.
The fact that this is a moderated forum implies a certain responsibility for the content and therefore the owners must curtail to an extent what is posted here.

Last time I looked, the internet is pretty big so if there are are certain things you wish to discuss that are not alllowed here then feel free to explore.:)

I refer to Boards.ie only because that is where I most recently noticed the issue. It is not a feedback issue for Boards.ie that I am discussing, it is the legal concept that posting on a message board has the potential to be classified as, for example, libel.

Again, I am not referring solely to Boards.ie but rather the illustrative example of an Internet discussion area. I believe that publication and copyright laws are being blurred by the concepts in communications that the Internet presents us with.

I specifically didn't mention 'free speech' as this was not a point regarding 'free speech'. The point is - is it appropriate (I'm not currently concerned with 'Is it fair?' or whatever) to allow libel to apply to discussion groups. I use this as one example of how an existing law is being applied where it might not be appropriate.

What I was trying to illustrate (and I guess failed to do) was that a forum's regulations/rules may be influenced by a legal requirement that might not be applicable.

I appreciate the response but what you mentioned is not quite what I was talking about. I can understand your response though as I have reviewed many of the protests posted by users as to why they were, in some cases summarily, banned. I am not approaching this from the perspective of someone who has been banned or been threatened with banning, however. If you review my posts you'll find that I haven't run into that wall... and I hope never to do so as I will attempt to regularly review the conditions that are posted for each forum I visit.

Maximilian

I'm not going to get into the reasons why the rules exist but they go beyond defamation issues.

Legal discussion is encouraged here, soliciting or giving legal advice is not. Most people fail to understand the difference.

By all means start a thread in Feedback but the rules are staying as is.

Thread closed.