Thread Removed

Dav

Hello all,

Occasionally, as a few of you will be aware, we have to remove things from the site based on a legal complaint. In this case, I've had to remove a thread entitled about a business called MrModChips because it was found to contain some defamatory material as well as a breach of that business' copyright.

When we are officially notified of something we are obliged to review it. In doing so, the onus falls on us to remove anything that is defamatory or a breach of copyright. We can't ascertain the facts behind any particular situations, and therefore we can't state - having reviewed a particular post - that members should "beware" of, or "steer clear" any individual or business.

So we have removed the thread in question with out an admission of liability or ownership of the comments made.

Thank you for your time folks.

Reamer Fanny

Hi Dav,

You edited the thread and removed supposedly defamatory remarks, the thread was already previously edited by EnterNow. Then a short time later you removed the thread completely, I'm sorry but this reeks of censorship.

I stand by and take full ownership of my comments "Beware of" and "steer clear". I have documentary evidence of my experience with aforementioned retailer to prove to you that I have no vested interests in making "mrmodchips" look bad - I was a genuine customer with a genuine complaint.

This thread served to warn fellow users on this forum of said retailer and the onus would be on them to make an informed decision to purchase from "mrmodchips" based on my experience.

The claim that a screenshot of the website is in breach of copyright is completely outrageous, seems to me that "mrmodchip's" legal team were clutching at straws as all defamatory comments were previously removed.

Ultimately it is at your discretion to reinstate the thread or not, I no longer care either way.

Dav

I'll happily explain further - there's no secrets here.

As I said above, when we're officially informed of something and we review it, we are now formally aware of what it says, and are no longer covered by the "mere conduit" defence in law which allows us to run this site.

In this particular case, the title of the thread, as well as the comments made by you and others leads us to a position where Boards.ie could be seen to endorse the comments made. We have no means of knowing the truth (in a legal sense) of these matters unless of course we go through a costly legal battle where we have to bring you and everyone else in as a witness and you have to swear that what you said is true. It's one of the few cases in law where despite the intention, the result is "guilty until proven innocent."

The copyright issues is 100% - as ridiculous as that may sound. The screen-shot contained that business' logos and so on and they did not give us permission to host or display them. I know that seems completely contrary to common sense, but the law and common sense are 2 very different things and as far as the Internet's concerned, are quite often mutually exclusive.

So please understand that I don't think you've acted out of order or anything like that. I initially tried to leave the thread there with some edits but my own boss who's slightly better versed in the legalities than I am (and upon who's head the ultimate responsibility lies) suggested that it was better that we remove the thread. I absolutely hate that we have to shut down a genuine discussion for these reasons, but my responsibility is to the site as a whole and this is one of the more unpleasant parts of the job I'm afraid.