After problems I've had on another of my forums I've discovered that the popular forum registration line of "You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this forum, any related websites to this forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries." etc., or words to that effect, aren't worth the virtual paper they're written on.
On the forum in question we've had to take the step of introducing a "no naming and shaming" rule (it's a medical support forum, and some members who weren't happy with their doctors had taken to "naming and shaming" their doctors), and after checking out the legal situation I discovered that under UK legislation in relation to defamation law, the owner/manager of a site/forum is classed legally as a "distributor" which means that in addition to a poster potentially being sued, a site or forum's owners/administrators/moderators can also be the subject of legal action for allowing content to be posted. Most members are happy to go along with it (and some have contacted me and said they're pleased we've done this and didn't realise they could get into trouble for things they said online), but a tiny but very vocal minority of members seem to have a problem with me not wanting to get sued, however having spent the best part of two days sorting this out, I'm in no mood for taking any cr@p from anyone, and anyone who starts arguing the toss will live to regret it if they wish to carry on using the forum.
Some links with useful info:
http://www.ukaop.org.uk/cgi-bin/go.pl/forums/thread.html?uid=314;room_uid=1;category_uid=2 (this one in particular has a useful link to the defamation section of their legal handbook)
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum103/778.htmhttp://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/defamation-in-cyberspace.htmlhttp://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,12688849-15306,00.htmlhttp://www.expertlaw.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=47Explanation of defamation and the various defenses etc.:
http://www.lawyers-media.com/guide/subs.htm#defamationA couple of online cases where site owners have got into hot water:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumsnet#Mumsnet_vs_Gina_Fordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxegen_2006#Aftermath
