Dear Members,

Recently we have seen a small increase in members intentionally, or unintentionally, attempting to put companies in disrepute.

It is potentially damaging to any company in question, and furthermore defamation laws do apply to the individuals who post such information including you.

Read articles below:
Landmark case shows SMEs can take legal action against online defamation - 25 February 2010 (Source: Smart Company website).
Cyber poison-penner hunted down and sued - 25 February 2010 (Source: The Age website)

These members also implicate others who partake in such dialogue. Recently, a member was legally pursued for simply quoting someone else's objectionable information which unnecessarily put a lot of emotional strain and hardship on that individual.

The consequences can be quite severe. In short you risk being sued by your company. We will also legally pursue individuals and seek redress and it won't be our first time.

The risks are real, and the potential loss one can suffer by posting with malintent, and / or without care, is very real also. Individuals stand to lose much more than less significant amounts sometimes complained about.

For those individuals who have shared a little too much and think that by using an abbreviated or a variant of a company name instead of the actual company name are not liable, think again. If the identity can be revealed by any reasonable person by forming some association between alias and company name, by any remote link established between a variant / abbreviation and a company name, by the link to your blog, by a give-away response to your post in a thread, or by another thread (and not limited to), then you should be extremely concerned.

If one complains about a burger purchased at MacDonalds or McD's, which company would a reasonable person conclude this to be? If you know the answer to this then you should be concerned about any company name variants and associated comments you may be hiding behind.

Furthermore, in Australia, even if you only state the facts, but the iteration of facts is damaging then you are at high risk of being threatened with a defamation suit.

As a forum member, What must I do?

- Read the Forum Terms of Use again, and again.
- Understand your liability, and read about the Australian defamation laws that apply to you.
- Read and edit every existing post of yours where required.
- Use the 'Report Post' button to notify us of objectionable posts at risk of being defamatory posted by other members.

Any reported member who is in clear breach of our Terms of Use, and does not act on cleaning up their posts will be immediately suspended from the forum without warning. You will also be at risk of your identifiable details (including IP address) being passed on to respective parties upon receiving a court order.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to PM me.

It has been brought to our attention that some are experiencing editing issues when trying to edit old posts.

In the interim, please request that we edit your posts by providing us with the thread link, and post/s to be edited.

You can PM 'homeone' or either of the Moderators these details.

Editing issue resolved.

To all new members, please ensure you understand and read this thread.

For any member reported to be in breach of the above, your forum membership and all your posts will be deleted with or without warning.

To all members,

It is in your best interests to ensure you're of complete understanding and agreement of the Forum Terms of Use as YOU are solely responsible and liable for your own postings, and as you formally accepted upon registration of this forum.

Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me directly via PM.

Bump.

Dear Members,


We thank you for kindly reporting a serious breach of Terms of Use by a new member to which he / she agreed to upon becoming a responsible forum member.

The objectionable information will be reviewed by us and possibly presented to our solicitor as early as tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, we regret the entire thread has been quarantined pending further investigation.

Should you be reported to defame or damage, for any reason whatsoever, any company or individual, your account will be immediately suspended, and a report will be filed for legal purposes including your IP address which is automatically recorded.

To report any forum abuse please click the red exclamation mark (!) located bottom-right of the objectionable post and we will endeavour to attend to the matter at our earliest convenience.

Providing part or a full name of an individual, or any information that identifies an individual, such as initials - or any other method which can establish the identity of an individual - is strictly prohibited. You will be immediately suspended, and a report will be filed for legal purposes including your IP address which is automatically recorded.

Bump.

Please be respectfully reminded that defamation laws apply to individuals.

Recently, a member's PM containing potentially defamatory / damaging content was reported to us by a recipient.

Utilising PM's (in addition to publicly posting on our forum) for the purpose of defaming / damaging any individual or entity is a clear breach of our Forum Terms of Use.

As a result, the member in question has had his/her account immediately deactivated - and without further warning.

If you have received any PM's of such nature at any time in the past or more recently, please advise members of our Support Team or 'homeone', so we may investigate and act promptly.

Thank you.