04-21-2006, 02:13 PM
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Hotrodders.com
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Colorado
Age: 33
Posts: 146
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German courts hold forum operators responsible for content
Thanks to Hotrodders Bulletin Board member 78novaman for posting this article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/0...e_for_comments/
This is very similar to the Australian situation we initially encountered.
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The previous legislation held that forum providers were only liable for illegal content that they had knowledge of and were not obligated to actively search for such; now, the judges in Hamburg have overruled that interpretation. Providing Internet forums is, they argued, a type of business operation. Operators therefore have to be able to hire enough staff with legal training to be able to handle such operations. "If the number of forums and comments in them is so great that the opposing party does not have the staff or technical means to review comments before they are published, they either have to expand their in-house resources or [...] reduce the scope of their business operations," the first-instance district court of Hamburg argued.
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Scary stuff -- and here's why:
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Moderation of user comments would mean the end of the fledgling forum culture in Germany. We believe that this ruling is grossly unfair. If it stands, it will have severe consequences for all forum operators.
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Thankfully, the American legal system has a reasonable viewpoint on this issue. More info at this link: http://www.chillingeffects.org/ques...?QuestionID=314
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