Trying to hold a service provider, like web site, responsible for users' comments is a bit like accusing the government of facilitating bank robberies because the government built the public roads that bank robbers used.
But public roads, as a service, have been available since Roman times and longer. People are used to them, and accept that they are a good thing, even if bank robbers also use them. The internet and online services is a comparably new phenomenon, and sometimes people, including legal professionals, are a bit confused at how to deal with it.
Many jurisdictions have therefore introduced explicit legislation to protect online service providers, like the DMCA Safe Harbor provisions in the US.
libel/defamation etc is another animal than copyright of course, and different jurisdictions have different laws, but in my humble opinion service providers should be protected from these kinds of legal threats, which are related to statements made by OTHERS (amd simply facilitated, in good faith, by the service provider, but not endorsed) I don't think pprune, or any website or online service provider, should be held liable for my personal opinions. My phone company isn't responsible for what I say on the phone either. If you hold avherald responsible for users' comments, why not also go after google? after all, their automated search engine has also picked up the same comments, and you could construct a claim google also "published" it and can be held liable for it. In my humble opinion this would not be a very fruitful line of thought, and definitely not in the best interest of society.
Last edited by deptrai; 7th Dec 2012 at 08:25.