I need a legal opinion.....

Did you change the TOS or something? If she agreed to them at one point, theoretically, she should still be obliged to adhere to them. Needless to say, it's not really clear to me what she's upset about.

Granted, I think you're right in your decision to delete her posts. Someone like that who gets that aggressive just isn't worth dealing with, and you might as well just get her out of your hair.

Whenever someone posts to a forum. They retain their intellectual property rights. Unless they specifically waived it. You could argue that she waived it by joining but it's totally not worth the trouble.

Delete it and be done with this head case.

As a NON lawyer - just my opinion

I would think that she agreed to YOUR terms and conditions when she joined your site (paid or not makes no difference)
Evidence of that agreement is her participation in your forum.

She gave freely of her ideas and comments by posting on your forum and engaging your other members in discussions. I really don't see where she has a "leg to stand on".

I'm curious what others have to say about it.

I'm also curious what your lawyer will say as well. If you don't mind posting a reply as he/she will look at your terms of service and make a decision based on that.

I'm no lawyer - but I don't think you have anything to worry about. However, have you thought about paid advertising, or other ways of getting the funds you need? Introducing a paid membership to a forum that was previously free, has been know to be a forum killer.

As a side note - it appears as though the forum in your signature has been attacked by a porn bot.

Did you get the notice after you went paid?

If yes, did she pay?

Garrie

Yeah,

As many have stated (and I can confirm this as I have spoken to a lawyer on a very similar issue). If your Disclaimer/Privacy Policy clearly state all the rules and he or she went along a bought, participated, on your website then that's her/hes responsibility.

The second a person goes on a website he must assume responsibility of what he or she is getting themselves in to (your job is to kindly show them using your disclaimer/privacy policy).

If you have date or proof that it was you had all your rules before she started posting up on your website then you really have nothing to worry about.

In my personal opinion, delete the content and just move forward save your time, effort on better things.

Best Regards,
-Alex Kaplo

If the original language in your TOS says the site offers free membership and then it changed to paid, I think she might have a case in saying that you changed the terms, therefore she can, in a manner of speaking, also change her terms as a member and ask to have her stuff deleted or surrendered or whatever. Just my opinion.

Actually as it seems this individual is on a mission to deter and destroy the work that I've done for the last 2 years - she has rallied up several of her close friends on the site and convinced them to e-mail the same template that she sent me requesting that her work be removed....I found it on a site titled
"Letter of Protest to xyz" - what happens now?

I received an additional 3 messages asking their content to be removed - at this rate they will strip the forum of all content. argh! Who thought that doing something good for a group of folks will come back to bite you in the arse when you could no longer afford to keep it free......and to top if off the fee is only $2.95 lol.

geesh...this woman is crazy!

Oh dear, my thoughts are with you.

Running a forum is fraught with problems, arguments, people shooting off etc.

I hope you resolve this soon.

If it were me I'd just delete her postings if I could. It's the path of least resistence. Damage limitation.

Good luck!

RRicart
I'm guessing that the forum in question is NOT the one posted in your signature.
Something has certainly put a burr under her saddle blanket.
If your terms have not changed from the time she first registered (and those of her friends as well) then I would leave the posts the way they are.
A forum is made up of the comments from its members - thats the nature of a forum.
If you start deleting all the posts (hers and the others that request it) then your forum will be damaged and incomplete.

On the other hand, you have a responsibility as the forum owner that posts are appropriate for that particular forum. An example is the porn spam on the forum in your signature. No one wants to have their posts associated with that garbage - so I am hoping this is not happening in the forum she's a member of.

Is she worried you are going to take the advice and material she has posted (and those of her friends) and turn it into a product to make money from? Thats what she seems to be worried about - since that is what she is quoting from your terms.

Personally I would leave all the posts. It is all the comments that make a forum - perhaps she will read the terms more closely next time she joins somewhere.

I would send an email to those who are complaining telling them that they are welcome to continue with their membership or to quit its their choice but no posts are being removed. If you have offending members, you will have to remove them. Put the ball back in their court. They either participate appropriately or they will be banned. (and keep the posts there)

Hmmm - maybe I should ask Allen to delete all my posts before someone collects all my advice and makes money from it -- lol :rolleyes:

I haven't read all the details, so my apologies first of all if this has been covered or you already know this (I am just on my way out to dinner, hence the short reply) but at best all you're going to get is an opinion on this site. Anyone can claim to be a lawyer etc, and even some of them get it surprisingly wrong. If you want a LEGAL opinion, you're unlikely to get an informed one here. You're always best seeking proper, professional, legal advice from a lawyer experienced in this area of law.

Good luck to you.

RRicart
This appears to be the case of the tail wagging the dog.
Sorry friend but you need to get tough and take your forum back.

Put your ads back up and start weeding out the complainers. Sure your membership is going to decrease but letting this type of thing continue will kill off any prospective members for the future.

Get rid of the problem child - the original complainer. Write to her "friends" and tell them they are welcome to stay but here are the rules.
No forum bashing
There will be ads - someone has to pay the bills and its not them
The forum is owned by RRicart - like it or lump it

Go through and delete the posts that are negative and damaging and off topic for the theme of the forum.

Whose forum is it? Yours or theirs? It is a privilege to be a member NOT a right. Preserve the content you have, go after new members and get rid of nasty members who are doing nothing but making your life miserable and destroying your forum.

Keep it out of court and out of the hands of the lawyers. The only ones who win when it becomes a legal battle is are the lawyers.
Get rid of her and let her make the first move if there is going to be any legal action.

Let her spend her money - I bet she doesn't do it.

In the meantime you need to take back the control

Good luck

Delete the posts, forward the information to your lawyer and let it go. This person is way over the top and the way the e-mail was worded, possibly even a lawyer...

Seems like this lady is the kind of person you wouldn't want as a neighbour in the offline world ;( -- you know, the neighbourhood trouble-maker type. What happens offline is bound to happen online unfortunately.

My 2 cents (not 'legal' advice that's for sure): I'd say this is one of those rare cases where "A good offense is the best defense" and I'd be thinking about rattling my sabers right back, showing what the "potential consequences" for continuing down that path would be.

Good luck. Verrry stressful kind of stuff to deal with.

As for the other website they have posting their garbage on,
Contact their web host.
Ask that the site be removed and tell them that the owners of the site and the hosting company are being named in a defamation of character / Slander lawsuit that your lawyer is currently drawing up. Tell them it would be beneficial to all parties concerned if this situation was resolved quietly.

Since you did nothing wrong (I'm assuming) I would ask for a public apology after which you will remove her posts (leave all the others up).
Tell her to replace her negative remarks on her website with a public apology. Leave the apology up for 3 months (or a time equal to the amount of time she has been making your life miserable)
At the end of that time frame - remove her posts.

She probably won't do it. Once again put the ball in her court.

Make an example out of her. Turn it around so you are the good guy. Let everyone know that your forum rules are there to protect them and this is what we do with problem people - we ban them from the forum to protect the integrity of the forum and to protect the members inside.

This is negative publicity that YOU can use to your benefit.

I was the owner of an auto racing magazine several years ago. We had a lot of readers. The magazine was distributed via mail and at the tracks each week.
One race in particular - some pretty shady things were going on so my partner and I wrote about it. It created a buzz that improved sales.
It was a great selling issue.
It was factual and not very negative but one track in particular took offense to it and stated they were going to ban our magazine from the track.
Word spread about the magazine being banned - we continued with the articles - sticking to the facts and reporting what we saw.
That next magazine was our best seller ever. At the track that "banned it" we were distributing it on the street and readers were contacting us to make sure they could get a copy. They may have banned the magazine from being distributed at the track but every driver and spectator carried their issue to the track with them that weekend.
It was quite funny to watch.

My point is - take bad publicity and turn it around to work for you. It can be done and you will benefit. Especially if you can show her at fault and get a public apology from her. Don't fabricate things and stay factual. If you can't get the apology - no big deal - you still have all the posts.

This woman may have a legitimate reason. I could list a thousand.

Is it to much trouble just to delete the posts or are they valuable to you?

I suppose it would come down to whether or not she agreed to wave them. Or better still who can prove that and How they decide is what really matters.

Just my opinion and NOT legal advice.

Louis

I was thinking that maybe what I need to do is type up is a cease defamation of character letter as this individual is defaming me and the website I run...She also used another site by an ex-member of the community to post the template letter and the ramblings there so do you think this is a good way to go as well...

Do any of you know of any good Cease Defamation Template Letters..?

RRicart:

Every open source forum software that I can think of (SMF, Phpbb, V-Bulletin, etc.) has a line in the TOS that lets the user know that their posts are the property of the forum once they post. Unless you drastically changed the TOS you should be fine.

Peace,
EJ