The Blackbox Debate

A little background, in case anyone is interested...

I do my level best to stay abreast of legalities in this area but IANAL (I am not a lawyer).

Organisations and individuals hosting unmoderated online forums and blogs are in a precarious situation.

Others can publish views and information on the blog or forum that might be illegal, defamatory or infringe copyright. They cause the material to be published and are legally responsible for consequences arising from its publication. 

However there is australian legal precedent that demonstrates that once notified of the infringement, if the host doesn't take reasonable steps to address the issue (i.e. remove the offending material), then they may be held responsible for continuing to allow it to be published.

For this reason, if I'm notified of illegal, defamatory or copyright infringing material, specifically what material and why it should be removed, I will remove the material without question as soon as practical.

I'm not in a position to make a judgement about what the courts may or may not regard as defamatory. However, I do take the strong view that this site offers a forum for occasionally robust debate and discussion. In this context, I'd strenuously resist any suggestion that posts on this site could reasonably constitute defamation.

Quite apart from being entirely impractical, moderation or vetting of material prior to publication poses the additional dilemma that the act of moderation makes the moderator as culpable for what is published as the person contributing the information!  

I earnestly believe I'm acting legally and responsibly by hosting a public forum that provides members with a means of voting offensive material out of prominence and a mechanism for dealing with complaints about infringing material.

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Director, actor and administrator of this website