I have a whole post that includes legal information on what is OK to post in the Getting Started section. I also link to EFF's guidelines to defamation and libel. No one should be making a single post anywhere online unless they are familiar with the legalities of posting.
I have asked people many times to please NOT post links to puppy sale sites, auctions or individual breeders or discuss breeders and their personal breeding practice here. If the discussion simply refers to an existing discussion somewhere that is generally OK -- but most of the time I will remove comments about specific people or their sites -- as I have had to do several times before.
Please folks: if you are posting to this board, READ THE GETTING STARTED SECTION ON WHAT YOU MAY POST.
On some of the legal side... server domain is irrelevant more or less when it comes to libel but the issue is complicated (so assume anything posted falls under any existing libel law anywhere the site can be read -- though you'd need very deep pockets to bring suits in other jurisdictions! or any jurisdiction for that matter
). One thing I do know pretty well is working libel and defamation law -- not only do I have to know this as a working journalist for several national newspapers and magazines (and I've also worked for online publications such as Wired.com and Salon.com, not just print
) but I also have written
about this area regularly as a journalist, and I keep au fait with emerging case law thorough several legal practices, three of which advise me on my own sites (two major Irish law firms and one major east coast US firm with offices across the US). This, incidentally, is why I laugh when some of the people who post to sites elsewhere accuse me of defamatory comments here and threaten to sue.
I can promise I know better than they do what is allowable, what is fair comment, and what my responsibilities as board owner and admin are. But of course, as with the infamous planned hiring of the PR firm to advise the UK CKCS Club, if these ladies wish to give some lawyers employment in the downturn to tell them what I can already tell them, they are welcome.