Just curious

[Delta4Embassy]

And furthermore..I thought it an interesting question AND discussion. However, since it seems to be childish to some to discuss whether websites can be sued by nutbars, neverfriggingmind. No more questions.

I am picking up my ball and going home. To Eye Candy or some such.

Y'all wanna keep playing in the proverbial sandpile, I will leave the toys you can play with.

Toddy:They didn't shoot a real horse.
Just a costume with two waiters in it.

Waiter:I shall think of a sharp retort
while I am getting your roast chicken.

Toddy:It's a wise man who knows
when to throw in the towel.

Waiter:And it is a moron who gives advice
to a horse's ass.

- "Victor/Victoria"

 

[Meister]

And finally, and back to my original point, what we say online can be actionable (get you sued.) We are NOT anonymous.

Libel Online - Lawyers.com

"You Aren't Anonymous

Let's get this straight. Web sites track IP addresses. Web sites will give up IP addresses to law enforcement and to subpoenas issued in civil cases. Your internet service provider will provide account details of IP addresses under the same circumstances. So what you say on the internet easily can be tracked to you.
The Internet Didn't Repeal the Law of Defamation

Yes, you can be held liable for defamatory things you say on the internet. It happens all the time now. Many examples come from negative feedback left by parties to transactions on internet auction sites, like eBay. In one case, a Florida attorney sued a dissatisfied buyer for libel. The buyer left negative feedback on eBay, saying the attorney was a "bad seller, he has the ethics of a used car salesman." The attorney sued the buyer for defamation of character.

The internet differs somewhat from traditional mainstream media when it comes to defamation and related lawsuits. The Communications Decency Act gives immunity to internet service providers for comments posted by their users. This immunity extends as well to web sites that permit user comments. If the web site doesn't prompt the illegal comments or behavior, it will not be liable for it. Of course, this doesn't protect the person leaving the offending comment. "


In other words, and again, on-point, while usmb may not be held liable for posts of its users, if your users keep getting hauled into court because you allow defamation that might have negative consequences for you when it comes to selling ads. So forbidding certain things is in your business-model best interest.

So what are the "mechanics" of this assumed lawsuit. Who are the parties, who do you serve, how are they served, where is the situs of the action?

Using the original example in a hypothetical:

User A calls user B a pedophile.

Because this is a charged term and unproven, user B sues user A for defamation. The lawyer for user B gets a subpoena and usmb.com is legally compelled to hand over data logs of user A's IP address, and an additional subpoena is filed to user A's ISP to resolve their IP into a real-world account and ID information. Then user B's attorney charges user A, now known in the real-world with defamation of character and they go to court. Meanwhile, as with the Courtney Love case, the site where the issue arose gets mentioned along with everything else. While that might initially result in more users and thus more ad revenue, if it keeps happening eventually advertisers may not wanna be associated with a controversial website so in the long-run it'd be a bad thing.

Easy to prevent though forbidding such words being used as insults. Don't think forbidding all insults is feasible though. Though unfounded accusations might always be actionable, other than draconian script-censorship I don't see how you could prevent it.

My opinion is that the reason it isn't happening regularly already is most people don't realize they even have the option to sue for such things.

My opinion is that you wouldn't have a case, unless your name is actually
Delta4Embassy and you could prove actual damages that were connected to this board.

Having said that, you did creep me out in one thread that was talking about man-girl relationship. Just sayin'