Forum Posting Legalities

[jwm123]

Evening all!

Just a quick one! Basically someone local to me (he considers me a 'business rival' but personally never thought anything of it) recently was convicted of several acts against children, I wont go into details on an open forum or release names but the outcome was that he has been placed on the VISOR (Sex offenders register) and also banned from using forums/social networking sites and IM clients.

Now obviously this can be damaging to have on his record especially being in the Media business so he has decided to try and even things out a bit. Through a contact I have been told that there are posts on a local town forum by this chap regarding me and a colleague, I have not been told what exactly they consist of but I think it is 'copies' of emails (I have never emailed him). Now the forum is locked to the public and only 1000 or so people can view it who are members of a club, I am not a member and joining is not possible without them finding who I am!

Is there anything I can do if I believe malicious untrue statements/posts have been made about myself and a colleague; I am really just looking for a statement I can email to the admin which means they have to let me see any posts which I believe could be damaging to myself, not sure if any law/statement exists? Also is there any way of reporting someone for breaching their VISOR restrictions?

Sorry for the long post and I shall keep everyone updated on the goings on! Thanks

[dirrty]

there's probably not a lot you can do due to freedom of speech. you could always contact whoever owns the site and tell them what you think is happening and see if they could help by checking the posts/threads to see if they're anything really unacceptable, but besides that i dunno.

[jwm123]

Thanks for the quick reply, I think requesting to the forum owner is out of the question as they all seem quite tight in looking out for eachother. I wanted something more legal which would give them no choice but to show me!

[Nixt]

Depending on what was said you could bring a case against them on the basis of the tort of libel (this is debated though because the law of slander and libel when it comes to stuff posted online is not 100% and ting). I'm not an expert though..

[jwm123]

Well if he has posted some 'emails' I have apparntly sent him then I can prove they were not sent. My colleague may have sent emails but any with my name on have not been sent from my email account yet I have been told they have come from mine, I can verify they have not and would obviously like something done!

Is there a basic email I could send to the site owner saying that I am allowed access to the posts to verify truth? Thanks

[Seatherny]

You can ask the site owner but he doesn't have to give you permission.

[jwm123]

You can ask the site owner but he doesn't have to give you permission.

Even if there is believed to be something incriminating on his website?
Surely it's like someone admitting to murder on a locked/private forum and no-one being able to see?

[Seatherny]

Even if there is believed to be something incriminating on his website?
Surely it's like someone admitting to murder on a locked/private forum and no-one being able to see?

Police can most likely force the owner to show it to them.
You as a member of the public can do nothing but report it to the police.

[Misawa]

Actually, freedom of speech doesn't give you the right to slander someone. It's actually illegal to be public about malacious lies that would demean someone - it's defamation of character. If the guy is breaking the law in the first place by posting, contact the police with proof.

[Black_Apalachi]

I think all you can do is contact the police. If you have proof of him breaching the VISOR restrictions then this is probably a good place to start.

Seriously though, is he completely banned from using any forums/social networking sites and IM clients? That would suck so much!!! :lol:

[alexxxxx]

if it's slander or libelous, yeah, you can in theory sue them for damages. I'm not totally sure about the legalities.

[jwm123]

Have had an idea with how to sort this but could do with some help!
If anyone wants to help that'd be good...can PM me and i'll tell you what we can do...can post the results here after for a laugh!