Cossey: Ban?

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@99FRC

People think that the internet is an “Anything Goes” operation, fact of the matter is that it isn’t and its a question of time where this wild west frontier of the digital age is regulated to protect the end users. I am not talking abour censorship, I am talking about peoples rights as afforded them under the law.

What the issue with forum banning is, it stops access to the resource, had the ban been limiting to guest, meaning that the resource is still accessible and the so called offender can access the site, your not breaking the law. However, snide posts and other nasty comments from other members does constitute cyber-bullying and would need same treatment of restricting the users access to guest status.

If a user is being intimidated, threatened, bullied, harassed, stalked, etc and the board owner refuses to resolve the issue, they can be sued, simple as that. All the plaintiff needs to do provide adequate proof of the activity and the board owner has to answer to the law.

TBH I don’t know why people are in a state of denial over this, laws are not set in stone, they change, new laws are brought in and the majority of legal representation you find will be very often a few years behind what new and hot. In the future it will be possible for someone to easily sue a board owner should their rights be infringed upon.

Unfortunately, forum board vendors are not lawyers and do not appreciate that they are facilitating this and are opening themselves up to legal action by way of being an accomplice by providing the ability to ban any access to the resource. Theirs very few board vendors that provide access as a guest after a ban. This needs to be addressed.

Board owners need to wake up and get used to the idea that a person has every legal right to defend themselves and just because they ban someone does not mean that the person being banned has no legal rights to pursue the matter.

you just made a case for me. however im not so petty as to do such a thing… but im quoting this for possible future reference word up!