[derfelix]

Actually there is nothing unlegal about it...
It is YOUR board.. It is YOUR server.. Other users come and register at YOUR server.. I think you can do what you want.. You could have a server called: insult-me.com and insult your users on it..

It is different if you ask users to pay for registration.. and you promise them that they will have absolute privacy in your privacy policy.. If you read the PMs, stating in your terms of service that you dont.. and ask money for it.. I think they can sue you for not respecting your terms of service.. (Like giving a faulty description of the product you sell)

What I do.. I included a paragraph in my Terms of service: "In our fight against child pornography, our administrators have the possibility to check Private Messages for abusive content..."

I think that the important is, that in your TOS you let users know that you have the ability to do it..

But again.. i dont live in the US, and my server is not in the US.. so maybe law is different there.. I think US government is allowed to read your mails.. what governments in europe are not yet allowed to.. (but they are preparing laws for that)..

F.