-----Original Message-----
From: silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com [mailto:silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Niki Scevak
Sent: Thursday, 2 July 2009 6:59 AM
To: Silicon Beach Australia
Subject: [SiliconBeach] Re: Introducing Myself + Advice Needed on "Defamation" on User Generated Content Site

Scott, from running a site where people leave reviews of others
(homethinking.com) I can say that I have probably been threatened with
legal action 20-30 times and not one of them has actually followed
through and sued. It is used as a threat and usually is just borne
from a frustration.

In your case, if you don't care that much, just simply remove all
deals from the merchant from the site and tell them that they will
never appear on your site again. That usually works.

Other than that, they can't actually sue you, they can only sue the
people who voted down. Not sure about in Australia but in the US there
is the Federal Communications Decency Act.

As well as regulating porn it also regulates liability in the case of
the person providing a forum (review site, news site, forum site etc.)
and those who post in the forum. See Section 230:

"No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be
treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by
another information content provider"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Decency_Act

Again, if the above doesn't work, just forward them that and there are
any number of other examples you can search for that should show them
they have absolutely no chance of succeeding (at least in suing you).

On Jul 1, 7:20 pm, Scott Yang <sco...@yang.id.au> wrote:
> Hi Silicon Beach Australia,

> A lurker here, but hopefully no more. I am writing here seeking some advice,
> but I think I might as well introduce myself first.

> My name is Scott Yang, a software developer based in Sydney. I guess you can
> probably find out more about me by googling my name. I have basically gone
> through two startups. Back in '98 to mid 2000, I was an employee of an
> online gaming startup over here in Sydney, ended up being a team leader of
> their backend architecture team doing Java on Solaris boxes. However online
> gaming is not something I really want to get involved with, so I quit after
> two years (and before the .com burst :) Count that as half a startup under
> my records.

> In 2001 a few colleagues from another company I worked for started our own
> software company servicing the financial planners. It was pretty much
> started from scratch coding-from-your-own-bedroom kind of style. It grew in
> size, got a few clients, and then in 2003 the company got acquired by an ASX
> listed company, and it had grown A LOT ever since. Well, it wasn't really an
> "exit strategy" for me because I am currently still working as a software
> architect in that company (doing mostly Python + front-end HTML/JS there),
> enjoying the office environment, employee benefits, stable income, share
> option, etc. However I got lots of idea in my head (+ I can code :) and
> maybe -- maybe one day I will be back in the loop starting something new
> again.

> I started blogging in ~2000 and being a bargain-lover, I started blogging
> about bargains in Australia since 2005. That blog started to grow and after
> some positive response from some of my readers, I decided to transform the
> site into a community site instead in October 2006 -- *OzBargain.com.au*,
> which is a bargain-sharing/voting community website, with most of the
> content user-generated. Similar to FatWallet or SlickDeals in US +
> Digg/Reddit style voting, but for us Aussies.

> That site has enjoyed some slow but steady growth over the last 2 and half
> years -- mostly viral with no advertisement, no PR, and a little bit of SEO.
> Last month it has grown to around 2.8 million page views with a nice side
> income through Google AdSense (although still a lot less than my day job). I
> still got tons of idea that I would like to implement -- if only I have the
> time! (not that easy when you have a demanding day job, wife, 2 kids,
> church, etc to look after). But again, who knows what will happen :)

> -=-=-=-=-=-

> The real reason for me to write this email is to seek some advice (probably
> legal ones) on "defamation" made on a user generated content site, which in
> this case is OzBargain.

> What happened was that one of the merchants who posted offers on my website
> DOES NOT like the idea that his offer gets voted down, and he has deemed the
> comments from our members "defamotory" (although far from it in my
> dictionary). He has now decided to sue us + file defamation action with fair
> trading (as though I am actually trading). If he has decided to sue us --
> then it is okay as we'll settle in court. But instead he has bombarded me
> with threatening emails with abusive comments, called my manager at work
> (but I was in annual today so didn't reach me), etc. While I am writing this
> he has sent three one-line threatening emails.

> I guess instead of waiting for court order, I might just call the police
> instead. But just in case that the user-generated content site actually gets
> sued, what kind of legal action do I have? Classic case might be Whirlpool
> vs. 2Clix but I did not the follow the case so not sure how WP got away at
> the end. Can anyone suggest who will be the best people to contact in
> Sydney?

> I know that there might be some IANAL response, and it might not be a good
> idea discuss it on a public newsgroup. If you know anything, feel free to
> email me directly at sco...@yang.id.au

> Regards,
> Scott