So Sue Me!

When you start a website that is based on complaints the first thing that you hear from people is “That’s a great idea but you’re going to get sued.” or, “That’s a great idea but what are the legal ramifications?” and comments like this. In a society where everyone sues everyone for everything, everyone thinks they can get sued for anything. Everyone also feels like the only way to know anything is by hiring a lawyer. For a small business, a lawyer can be a more immediate and daunting expense than the law suit that you higher him to protect you against. Though this is an option, it is not the only option. If your business has any success eventually you will probably wind up using the service of a lawyer. But there are many things, such as forming an LLC and drawing up a partnership agreement, that you can do on your own. There is also a lot of information out there that you can find out for FREE.

For example, when it comes to the question of whether or not you can get sued for publishing someone else complaint on your website, there is a little thing called the Communications Decency Act. To summarize what the act states it basically says that if you provide an interactive web service (such as a forum, blog, or website where you publish info that people report to you) you cannot be held responsible for the portion of the web content that comes from other people. That explains how web base consumer reporting agencies and blogs are able to operate.

What does this mean for us? It means we can’t be sued for the service that we provide. With the advent of the web, publishing as we know it was completely changed. Now, anyone with a computer and half a brain can get a blog through a website like Blogspot and all of a sudden they are a one man newspaper. Fortunately, however, thanks to the Communications Decency Act, they are not held to the same level of accountability as a newspaper when it comes to reporting info that is submitted to them.

Does this mean that you can say what ever you want about whoever you want with total immunity? No! The Communications Decency Act doesn’t protect you from stuff that YOU say on your website, only from things OTHER people say on your website or submit to your website or blog.

So bloggers, blog on. Lawyers, sit tight, we still need you for lots of things, just not to answer this particular question. By the way, I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, just my interpretation and opinion. To read some info on this for yourself check out this link http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/immunity-online-publishers-under-communications-decency-act . (I had to include that last sentence so that I could not be suedJ.)