Defamation

The law of defamation's aim is to protect all living persons from 'the publication of a false statement which discredits another by lowering the estimation in which that person stands in the opinion of right minded people' (Doolan 1999 p 208). Any claims or statements which are displayed on a company website bulletin board or chat room need to be checked to be legal founded beforehand.

Moderated v. un-Moderated Content
Since the outcome of Dr. Godfrey v. Demon Internet Ltd, where Demon were found to contravene chapter 1 of the UK's 1996 Defamation Act by knowingly having a posting of a libellous article on one of their Internet servers, the risk of Libel or Slander has been highlighted in the hosting of un-moderated postings by users on discussion boards. This case found that once Demon was notified of the offending article they were guilty of defamation by not removing it.

Akdeniz Y. argues that 'It is totally unacceptable that an offended party should simply notify an Internet Service Provider claiming the information to be legally defamatory'. Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK).

This legal issue, online defamation, has not been clearly defined as yet due to the lack of case law. The advice to any service business intending to carry out consultancy online would be to use members only, moderated bulletin boards / chat rooms until there is a clearer legal president.

Website Audit
It is recommended that you have your website audited by your lawyer to check for any infringement of current legislation.

Website Terms & Conditions
It is important to have terms & conditions attached to your business Website stating that all its contents are protected by copyright law.

© Trinity Solutions 2002 ~ 2012