The Legal Side of Webmaster ‘Forum Bashing’
Bad tempers and slander can result in legal action
By: Justin Bourne
Posted: 06/27/2007
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -
Adult webmaster forums typically are a virtual landscape in
which industry members can associate, discuss, and pore over
pertinent information surrounding the adult business.
However, webmasters beware uneven tempers and slanderous
jabber, because they could lead to potential legal action.
Last week, two female Yale law students filed a lawsuit
against the administrator of a website and 28 of the site's
users for psychological and economic damages. The two
plaintiffs, listed anonymously as Doe I and Doe II, allege
the users of a third-party law school message board
frequently made censorious remarks about their characters to
the point that it cost them not only their emotional
well-being, but potential jobs and internships. The site's
administrators apparently refused to remove the odious posts
despite repeated requests by the two girls.
"We handle a good number of these Internet defamation cases
— always on the defense side," attorney Larry Walters told
AVNOnline.com. "Ideally, we should all treat each other with
respect and courtesy, but when we don't, the remedy — in my
view — is more speech, not court injunctions against posting
on boards."
"Defamation is a narrow exception to free speech principles
and should be strictly construed in favor of maximum First
Amendment rights," Walters continued. "It is almost
impossible to obtain a temporary or preliminary injunction
preventing someone from making defamatory comments on a
board. This is usually treated as a prior restraint on
speech, which is uniformly disfavored by the courts."
Walters explained that if someone is proved to have
published a false statement of fact on a message board or
forum that caused a person injury, then that person could be
sued for monetary damages. However, many of these statements
are steeped in opinion, and someone cannot be sued for
expressing an opinion on a message board. That is not to say
if a statement is made about someone being a crook, or having
a sexually transmitted disease, and it's not true, that
person could not be sued for defamation.
"These forum-defamation cases often involve an issue of
anonymous speech, as well," Walters added. "Most people don't
use their real names on these boards. But the board may have
your personal information in some registration form, and if
subpoenaed — or sued — they will usually give it up. Usually,
the courts will require a preliminary showing that something
defamatory was said, before ordering the forum to give up
poster information, as a way of protecting anonymous speech
rights.
"Finally, it is important to remember that the forum,
itself, will usually have Section 230 immunity for any
defamation claims, or just about any other claims relating to
the content of the postings," he continued. "Sometimes they
end up getting named in the suit, but they can usually get
out fairly easy by showing that they did not post the
offending comments but merely ran the message board."
