Delivery Error in my Favour

KeithP

earthstorm wrote: »

WRONG. no forum can be held liable for what ever any of their members write. if they were held liable then they would not set up the forums.

Please can I respectfully suggest that a better way of phrasing your response might have been:
"I don't think you are right there. My understanding is that the forum is not responsible for what their members write".

Anyway, MSE seem to have a slightly different opinion.
From Forum Rules FAQs:

We can be liable for what you post. When you post something, not only are you liable for what you say, but we can become liable too as the host. So it's not a case of posting what you like, and we can delete posts if needed. Of course, our aim is to ensure legitimate information about saving money or fighting for consumer rights stays.

boo_star

KeithP wrote: »

Please can I respectfully suggest that a better way of phrasing your response might have been:
"I don't think you are right there. My understanding is that the forum is not responsible for what their members write".

Anyway, MSE seem to have a slightly different opinion.
From Forum Rules FAQs:

I was also going to say "Silk Road."

Slightly more involved of course but it's the same principle, a blanket statement of "they cannot be held liable" is patently false.

shaun_from_Africa

earthstorm wrote: »

WRONG. no forum can be held liable for what ever any of their members write. if they were held liable then they would not set up the forums.

If a post is put on a forum and it is unedited by the forum operators or moderators, then the comment by earthstorm is true.
If however, any part of the post is altered from what the original poster wrote, then the forum operator can indeed be held liable for whatever is written, so even if a slight change is made (for example, removing a signature or editing out personal or offensive comments) then the MSE.com owners could be prosecuted for something appearing on the forum.

This is covered by the Electronic commerce regulations 2002 (section 17)

earthstorm

Yes if the post is untouched by the forum team then the forum admins/team CANNOT be liable for anything stated by an of its members.

Do you think any person/company is going to set up and run a forum, knowing that if a member was to write something that was wrong/misleading that they would end up being held liable and could end up in court.

Slowhand

earthstorm wrote: »

Yes if the post is untouched by the forum team then the forum admins/team CANNOT be liable for anything stated by an of its members.

Do you think any person/company is going to set up and run a forum, knowing that if a member was to write something that was wrong/misleading that they would end up being held liable and could end up in court.

What do you mean by untouched? It seems such an odd word.

Why are so many topics then off limits on MSE?

I agree there is no way MSE should be held liable for the misinformation given out regularly by yourself or anybody else.

unholyangel

earthstorm wrote: »

Yes if the post is untouched by the forum team then the forum admins/team CANNOT be liable for anything stated by an of its members.

Do you think any person/company is going to set up and run a forum, knowing that if a member was to write something that was wrong/misleading that they would end up being held liable and could end up in court.

Try telling that to the P2P websites, and they were using the argument it was all user content and not even hosted by them.

I didn't (and nor did MSE) say they WILL be held liable. I said they can be held liable. Personally I don't think they'd ever be held liable unless the post/s in question had been reported and allowed to remain but again, nowhere did I say they will be held liable.

In fact I believe there have been a few companies over the years that you can't create threads on, due to the legal notices received by MSE from the solicitors of that company.

mije1983

unholyangel wrote: »

In fact I believe there have been a few companies over the years that you can't create threads on, due to the legal notices received by MSE from the solicitors of that company.

Indeed. There are 3 stickies at the top of the Praise and Vent board about companies we are not meant to post about. I believe there is also a utility company that can only be discussed in one specific thread.