KNOBTAIL said:
dont think for one minute that the other sites enjoy people from this site going into other forums and starting trouble there about Justyn or anyone else. They dont want it, and it became quite obvious when they put a stop to it and closed the thread.
Even the people who run the forum could be liable for allowing others to come on the site and unveil a barrage of posts that relate to some post. Certainly as an educated man you can see the potential for a problem here.
My post does not pertain to Justyn as much as it pertains to being a bit more responsible when it comes joining in the hunt, which is what has occurred on many occasions on this site. Probably close to 200 posts on Justyn with maybe a few people who feel they should seek damages. Thats fine. Let them remedy the situation by getting an attorney and file ! But for those who have nothing better to do then to follow Justyn from forum to forum, flinging accusations, becoming the guardians of what they perceive is acceptable behavior, should think twice.
Sorry, Jerry, but you are posting information which I feel is not entirely accurate nor correct.
No, owners, admins, and moderators of a site are NOT legally liable for what a third party posts on a publicly accessible forum site. This has been virtually beaten to death in many threads on this site via discussions centered around the Communications Decency Act or "CDA", 47 U.S.C. § 230. This is a federal law which specifically and pointedly provides this protection. Yes, certainly an owner, admin, or moderator CAN be sued, but certainly not successfully, as the suit would be entirely frivolous, malicious, and quite likely be considered as a violation of the CDA in itself. Which opens up the probability that any such lawsuit would subject the complainant with a countersuit that would be nearly indefensible by the now defendant. Some states require that a countersuit be filed ONLY after the original suit has been resolved in the defendant's favor, whereas others do not make such a stipulation. But in either case, it is certainly beneficial to have such a defensive mechanism in place to apply the cattle prod to such persons interested in just filing such nuisance suits with the hopes that an early settlement will get them what they wanted in the first place. If someone does file such a lawsuit, then there can be NO settlement. Take it to court, win it, then file a countersuit for all actual and consequential damages that the original suit incurred.
Secondly, lawsuits and the involvement of attorneys is generally not considered by the legal system to be the first line of complaint resolution. It should be the last. A lawsuit is the course of action after all other attempts at resolution have failed. In many cases, the act of filing a lawsuit before any other remedies have even been attempted could be provided as clear evidence that the lawsuit itself is malicious, frivolous, and quite likely a clear cut abuse of legal process in the court's eyes.
Thirdly, in my opinion, any person or business entity that does not have the financial foundation to pay their bills in order to stay in business is certainly not going to have the financial means to file a lawsuit that could easily cost them $20,000 just to get the process started. No attorney would take such a case involving the issues I have seen involving alleged libel, defamation of character, or anything else they can come up with in an attempt to try to remove the public posting of truthful information concerning their business practices on a contingency basis. That means a LOT of money up front, which will likely just be pissed away with no tangible returns. Which, quite frankly, if the person who is the subject of such threads had available, would be better spent just paying off those debts they have incurred by their apparently unscrupulous actions.
Quite frankly, I just don't see this happening. Far too many people use that lawsuit card to just try to scare people into shutting up about them so they can continue with business as usual for them. I have had more threatened lawsuits because of posts made on this site than any 10 (or more) people here combined. And I am just not impressed by such chest beatings and bellowings.
I am not afraid of anyone threatening to sue me for something posted on this site. And neither should anyone else who runs ANY website. And I certainly hope that no one else will be afraid of a threatened lawsuit simply because they want to post the TRUTH about someone. The TRUTH is the ultimate defense against a lawsuit from anyone attempting to hide the truth via such a process. With the TRUTH as your shield, no one attempting to block that TRUTH would ever, EVER want to get that into a courtroom in front of a jury and judge. And any attorney who would take it that far certainly risks sanctions from the judge for wasting the court's time and resources. And they KNOW this.
The best defense in such a situation is a Mexican standoff, and just dare the other guy to blink.
