Site content and legal questions

[Chris M]

I haven't edited my post at all actually...

To you the issue may be copyright, but the issue gets complicated by the Data Protection Act of 1998 for UK users...

Your best bet is to just do as they ask because then you can have nothing come back on you...

Chris

[Paul M]

The DPA only applies to personal information that can be used to identify a living person - forum posts do not contain such personal information so no one could request deletion of them via the DPA.

About the only thing a forum holds that could possibly be covered is e-mail addresses, and afaik, they are exempt as long as you are only using them for administration and public relations. Non profit organisations are also generally exempt.

[Chris M]

Originally Posted by Paul M

The DPA only applies to personal information that can be used to identify a living person - forum posts do not contain such personal information so no one could request deletion of them via the DPA.

About the only thing a forum holds that could possibly be covered is e-mail addresses, and afaik, they are exempt as long as you are only using them for administration and public relations. Non profit organisations are also generally exempt.

Actually Paul, the Data Protection Act can apply to forum posts, it all depends on the nature of your forum and what information is publically available from your posts such as a public IP address etc...

Or if you were ever dumb enough to post your Home address on the internet publically

Chris

[Freesteyelz]

Originally Posted by Chris M

To you the issue may be copyright, but the issue gets complicated by the Data Protection Act of 1998 for UK users...

I'm not in UK so obviously my knowledge of its laws will be limited. I did briefly read up on it, however, and it is made clear that the Act was designed to protect the rights of individual's personal information.

For the sake of argument let's say a person did post his/her personal information such as the home address or phone number in a public forum (since the discussion is about public forums). Later that person decides that he/she no longer wants to be associated with the forum and wishes his/her posts to be deleted so the request is made to the forum owner. If the forum owner decides not to comply with the request, the person who made the posts will have a weak case; difficult to sue another person because of the stupidity his/her actions.

Only here in the U.S. are we given the right to sue based on stupidity.

[Chris M]

Heh, I agree it would be stupid of that person to post it in the first place, but in such a case it would still fall down to the forum owner to at the very least remove the information from their post(s)...

Chris

[Freesteyelz]

Originally Posted by Chris M

Heh, I agree it would be stupid of that person to post it in the first place, but in such a case it would still fall down to the forum owner to at the very least remove the information from their post(s)...

Chris

The case could be made for safety reasons. If not for legal reasons, the forum owner in this case should remove the person's personal information because it is the moral and ethical thing to do. So I share your argument there.

Personally, whenever I or a mod on my site sees personal information posted in a public forum, we remove the contents immediately and will issue a warning. I prefer prevention whenever possible.