Update on the Gina Ford legal situation

I didn't see the ecommerce bit xenia and i know that is pretty much your department

but as far as ecommerce goes and the distance selling regulations then websites are not a permanent form as i understand it and in the ecommerce situation an eg price or agreement on an ecommerce website is not binding it is the confirmation in a printable permanent form to the customewr that is eg email, fax, letter

so does that mean that any forum is transient and thus outside the libel law?

By "you" is the point. If I left some paper in my garden and someone wrote something libellous on it for everyone to see I am not publishing it, am I? It's not like the Times web site which vets posts in advance, pays people to write who have contracts with it which include warranties the material isn't libellous.

DTI guidance:
"Question 18. What liability do Intermediary Service Providers have?

The Regulations limit the liability of service providers who unwittingly transmit or store unlawful content provided by others in certain circumstances. There are 3 categories of service providers whose liability is thus limited by the Regulations; those who transmit information (i.e. mere conduits), those who engage in ?caching? information, and those engaged in ?hosting? information. You should refer to Regulations 17- 22 for a full explanation of the requirements you will have to meet in order to fall within these limitations of liability and in case of doubt you should seek legal advice on such issues. "

As far as I know, and I was a scummy journo in a previous life , libel is anything which can be said to have been published in a permanent form to a third party which damages the reputation or trade of the person it's written about, causes them hurt or upset or something else which I cant quite remember...
So techinically speaking, if you wrote something libellous, even for example on a postcard which was only read by the postman as well as the person it was intended for, it would be classed as libel rather than slander which is libel but in a transient form, ie, spoken.
Of course, an absolute defence to libel is that whatever was said was true but no comment on that

Well nobody should ever want to be a test case so in that case it's going to be better to write her a cheque, much cheaper if it can be negotiated well enough. I'm not sure even if my point about those ecommerce regulations is wrong, there was libel at all, though. Anyway it vindicates my daughter's career choice. We know who will most benefit from all this.

I think that until it goes to court there is no definitvie uk ruling for a public forum rather than an eg yahoo group which is private

Am so and about this.
Good luck MNHQ!

It can't until after it's posted. It's like making paper available for people to write on and saying write what you like and then if someone writes something illegal you whip it down right away. I don't think it should be regarded as publication but I don't know enough about libel law to know the answer. I just thought regulations which said those hosting bulletin boards and don't check before posting are not liable as long as when they know something is dubious they take it down right away might be relevant.

mine aint there ... and i didnt mince words ... suggested a few to be looked up tho

hmm think that's different though as bt cannot sensor what people say over the phone, whereas a site can, to an extent, limit what is posted and about whom.

I agree wannabe. And where does it end? Will BT then be responsible for prank callers?

IMO if mn has to shut down as a result of this action it will set a huge precedent and internet forums will probably have to change their way of doing things as a result.

So where will we all go if she succeeds in shutting down mumsnet?

I have just posted one to best of luck

That's why they only publish 100 comments a day and we have 10,000

That illustrates the differences between a bulletin board which vets comments before posting where I'd say there was liability and those that don't like this where it's harder I would hope but I may well be wrong, to hold those who just make the page available to us to scrawl on, liable and then remove it when they know something that shouldn't be there is there.

I have posted one too

I have just added a comment too, wonder if it will get shown

if I was the boss of the mail I would have comments recieved 3968, shown 22

just submitted a comment..will see what happens

They haven't published mine either... Am I allowed to quote something she said in the article on here?

Hmmm... mine has been hours - I said about how people could come on MN and praise her methods, and now they can't do that (oh the shame of it)

I sent one last night and no show so i reckon it is binned it was very short and balanced too

I have sent another but i guess if they binned the first they might bin th esecond i suppose they pick the most interesting ones

it only took about five minutes for them to publish mine.

How long is it taking for them to process?