Aug 29 2005
Blogger Sued For Comments On His Weblog
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SEO Book’s Aaron Wall was sued today by Traffic-Power.com for alleged inaccuracies and lies appearing in comments other people have left on his blog. If this case goes to trial, it’ll set an important precedent in the blogging community and the Internet at large, answering a critical question, particularly for business blogs: are the comments others leave on your blog a legal liability?
An interesting case but one I hope doesn’t make it to court. I can’t imagine what would happen to the web if comments made by other people on your website made you liable for lawsuits.
Jason’s Google hate comments on Entrepreneur’s Journey might even get me into trouble 
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What would happen to comments? Either of 2 things: every comment would have to be moderated and accepted or blogs would imply disable their comments.
I’d predict that comments would essentially cease to exist on blogs … shame!
Hmm blogs without comments and lifeless, It would be stupid if this case even went to court! It would be like if someone called you on your phone and started telling you about some bomb that was going to go off, you have no idea what the hell is going on, but you become a suspect just by another persons actions. Stupid.
I don’t think theres too much to worry about in this. If you’re sensible and don’t encourage anything other then ‘constructive’ discussion (ie if someone is slamming MS, don’t join in, and if appropriate moderate).
I’m no solicitor, but it seems the primary issue they had with the comments were:
1) the release of trade secrets (Apple already proved you can get sued for this if you are an active participant in releasing it)
2) The fact that Adam was a very active participant in the defaming of the company. He should of acted responsibly- ie described his experiences, voiced his opinion, and left it at that. Not encouraged and fueled a rant about a separate legal entity.
Doing these two things are what got him into trouble, although some of the solicitors comments suggest hes unlikely to be found liable despite his behaviour.
Wow – that really would be unfair on SEO Book – how can you be held liable for what a visitor to your website says? It’s just like a person walking into a shop and threatening customers, with the shop owner going to jail for the stress caused! What a stupid case; I hope SEO Books woop ass and defeat this ridiculous ‘law’.
I did not hear of this, and since so much time has passed, the correct conclusion must have occurred. If visitor comments were cause for liability, the editing would be so extreme as to eliminate all postings. Really, any statement can be contested. But I still believe some common sense is required. Inflamatory or controversial posts should often be confined to the posters own website.