• From: Netherlands
  • Registered: 2006-06-10
  • Posts: 27

Topic: Forum rules - what should be there to prevent legal trouble?

Most forums on the web have a huge page of legalese describing all the rights, responsibilities, and duties of those who contribute to the forum. The punbb forum is an exception to this rule with the one-liner "Don't post anything you wouldn't want your mother to see.".

In an ideal world, that should be more than enough, as the moderators weed out the inappropriate posts. However, in reality angry users might resort to legal threats. I read in the Swedish forum about a guy who was threatened to be sued for not complying to the Swedish privacy law which requires explicit consent in order to store personally identifiable information. (It seems to me that it's pretty clear that information will be stored if you fill out an online registration form, but who am I?). I can imagine hairy copyright issues if the forum posts are moved to another website at some point in the future, and so on.

So what is the minimum ruleset that will cover me legally for this kind of things? For the record, my site is in Europe (Netherlands).

hankwang's Website

2 Reply by Paul

  • Paul
  • Senior Member
  • Offline
  • From: Wales, UK.
  • Registered: 2003-08-13
  • Posts: 3,089

Re: Forum rules - what should be there to prevent legal trouble?

I'm afraid for an accurate answer to your question you would need to consult a Dutch lawyer. Anything anybody else would suggest would merely be guesswork.

  • From: U.S.A.
  • Registered: 2005-08-26
  • Posts: 1,607

Re: Forum rules - what should be there to prevent legal trouble?

If your host is in the Netherlands as well, you might consider glancing at its TOS. They'll probably have included many restrictions to keep you (and them) legal, which should apply to your forum users as well. That might not cover everything, but it's a start. And like Paul said, proffessional help is the only real way to be safe.

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  • From: Netherlands
  • Registered: 2006-06-10
  • Posts: 27

Re: Forum rules - what should be there to prevent legal trouble?

Paul wrote:

I'm afraid for an accurate answer to your question you would need to consult a Dutch lawyer.

That's of course true, but I guess that there are plenty of people over here who have dealt with the issue. For this kind of things the Dutch law isn't that different from the laws in other EU countries, I suppose.

hankwang's Website

5 Reply by Paul

  • Paul
  • Senior Member
  • Offline
  • From: Wales, UK.
  • Registered: 2003-08-13
  • Posts: 3,089

Re: Forum rules - what should be there to prevent legal trouble?

hankwang wrote:

For this kind of things the Dutch law isn't that different from the laws in other EU countries, I suppose.

Don't you believe it. Dutch law will probably be similar to other Roman law jurisdictions like France and Germany but different to commonlaw jurisdictions such as England & Wales and Ireland. The only common ground will be where EU law intervenes. Something like the law relating to defamation which is partcularly relevant to websites is likely to be radically different. As Pogenwurst says, a quick solution is to look at the TOS of somebody who most likely has had legal advice and copy it.

  • From: 127.0.0.1
  • Registered: 2001-11-02
  • Posts: 9,167

Re: Forum rules - what should be there to prevent legal trouble?

In Sweden, there's a law known as the BBS law. It basically states the you, as a host or administrator or whatever, cannot be held responsible for what other people say on an "electronic bulletin board". If you're a registered editor of a publication with a BBS however, other rules apply. Maybe there's something similar in the Netherlands?

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