German court rules moderators liable for forum comments

["Gary Funck" <gary () intrepid com>]

[troubling precedent.  BTW, what is an "internet dialer"?  And how can
posting
a script "disrupt the practices of Universal Boards?"  And what is
wrong/illegal
about buying up expired domain registrations, and using them for new
purposes
(even those as nefarious as setting porn traps for the unsuspecting)?]

Original URL:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/21/moderator_liable_for_comments/

German court rules moderators liable for forum comments
By Jan Libbenga
Published Friday 21st April 2006 12:05 GMT
A Hamburg court has ruled
(http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/72085) that moderators of
internet forums are liable for content posted on their sites.

The previous interpretation held that they were only accountable for illegal
content they had been made aware of. The new ruling means if operators do
not have enough in-house resources to monitor forums, they should "reduce
the scope of their business operations".

The case started with a forum member of German news site Heise Online, who
posted a script in order to disrupt the business practices of Universal
Boards. This Munich company has been widely criticised for allegedly
distributing premium rate internet dialers. Universal Boards was also
accused of buying up domain names that expired, and then using those domains
for advertising porn, including a site that was previously owned by a German
Volunteer Firemen's Association.

Last year Universal Boards demanded that Heise removed the script, which it
did, but the publisher refused to sign a formal obligation. Universal Boards
then asked the district court to issue a temporary restraining order. The
legal fight continued until last week, when the judge handed down his final
ruling.

Legal experts now fear that because of the ruling, lawyers will be seeking
damages from moderators who they believe are breaking the law. Heise says it
will appeal the ruling.®


_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.