A 10 Million Dollar Forum - Be careful or someone might value yours the same

محروم.كوم · #1 03-16-2010, 02:20 AM

If you are a forum owner / operator this concerns you.

Over the years I have had people threaten to sue me because they didn't like something that was posted in my forums, and I know a number of others that have been threatened as well. Up until now (as far as I know) there have only been threats.. This has now changed and it could set a president which could affect all of us, no matter the size or topic of our community.

A 10 Million Dollar lawsuit has been filed in Federal Court against Intermedia Publications, which owns www.ScubaBoard.com , Brian Verbonac (member of ScubaBoard), and potentially up to 100 other members (once they can identify them), by Maldives Scuba Diving, Pvt. Ltd. , and Gundi Holm.

A link to the papers filed in U.S. District Court and served to Pete (NetDoc) Murray, who operates ScubaBoard, are located here:
http://gundisuit.scubaboard.com/gundisuit.html

Links to the threads that are the basis for this lawsuit are:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/acc...ay-2008-a.html
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/acc...it-thread.html
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/acc...it-thread.html

The short version is that a couple of threads were created covering the death of a diver on a live-aboard diving boat, and the sickness of 10 others during a charter. One of the threads was started by a member who was actually on the boat when this happened.

A considerable amount of discussion ensured about who was to blame, why the diver died and others became ill while diving. Carbon Monoxide poisoning was at the top of the list along with apparent shoddy maintenance of the SCUBA tank compressors on the boat.
For the majority of you who are reading this that are not SCUBA divers, this may mean little to you; however, for those of us who are divers, your life depends on what you breath and who you dive with. Obviously, the ongoing debate in these threads was not good for business. You can Google "Gundi Holm" (I believe she is the Travel Agent for these boats and I have read possibly has ownership stakes as well) and ScubaBoard is #1.

I have not gone back and re-read the threads in their entirety but there were a few members who may have been pushing the speculation a bit, and making comments that were over the top. If that is the case, then it is a company's right to sue that person and seek damages. What is different here is they are not only suing the members who took part in the thread, but the owner of the community as well. To get around the protection we are provided as Internet Service Providers / Networks, they are alleging:

"Plaintiffs are informed and believe and based thereon allege that the ScubaBoard members posting under the usernames "Leslie Finnegan," "BrianMered," "peterbj7," "DandyDon," and "Apollo" are all agents or eployees of Intermedia, or made the postings at issue at Intermedia's direction. Therefore, Intermedia is responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or development of the false and defamatory content provided through ScubaBoard"

I am an active member of the ScubaBoard community and a friend of the owners. I know how that community is run.. None of the members listed above are staff members, nor are they "agents" who were enlisted by the owner of ScubaBoard (or staff) to advance an agenda such they state in their complaint. They take a hands off approach unless someone violates the policies. The staff is professional and does not have an interest or the time to get involved with game playing or attaching a dive operation on the other side of the planet.

I think the purpose here is clear.. To stifle bad press and shut down the conduit of communication.
I find it disturbing that the plaintiff's attorneys are attempting to make an end-run around the protections we are afforded as forum operators by claiming there was some sort of conspiracy between the staff and members. How easy would it be for other plaintiff's attorneys to claim the same to bring us into a lawsuit, especially if these people somehow prevail in court?

The one thing I will be doing as a proactive measure is to make doubly sure all of our staff members remain uninvolved in any type of negative feedback thread. I'm not sure there is much more we could do other than censor threads like this - which I am completely opposed to doing. Removing threads such as these not only would do our members a disservice, but make me feel personally complicit should someone get hurt either financially or physically.

David __DEFINE_LIKE_SHARE__