Website content

What is the name of your state? Washington State

I play on a game site where people play different game and exchange messages. The messages are save in a person's mail box on the site. Also, some members message back and forth via email and MSN messenger.

One fellow on the site has had a history of cheating and creating multiple accounts, which is against the rules. He's been banned from another site and now plays at the one I'm at.

He's denied any and all wrong doing even though he was banned from the current game site for three months. He is now back.

Meanwhile many people have sent me games notes, MSN messages, and email between this person and themselves. In several case the person in question has shared his personal password with others and those people have sent me information too.

The information shows the behind the scenes planning and chatting and it's clear the allegations are true. The question I have is this:

Can information such as personal messages between myself and this person in question, plus all other written transcripts that I've been sent (which are messages between this person and others) but put up on a web site? Mostly people go by screen names but the purpose of the site is to inform people of the turth of what has been taking place. There are many private conversations between him and others but the others have turned from him and now want the truth known?

I've put all the information into a website with the approval of eveyone who sent me information (including their personal messages and game notes). Is there any liability I need to be aware of?

Thanks

DDD

Email is owned by the recipient unless the information is copyrighted or a privacy statement is included. It may depend on the content, but in most cases as long as you have permission from the recipient, or you yourself are the recipient you shouldn’t have a problem.

Website Content

Thank you for the reply. What constitutes a privacy statement? Most of the material was given me by the recipient of the messages. In some case I was the recipient. In a few cases, the exchange was between two people but was shared with others, copied, and given to me. They are mostly conversations but show evidence of the online cheating (chatting about it). I don't want to post anything that's no legal.

Thanks again for the help,

DDD

What constitutes a privacy statement?

Click to expand...

Something like, "this email is solely for the use of the recipient," or "this email is confidential," or "this email is privileged," something like that, usually followed by something that says "if you received this in error let us know" type of verbage. USually you only see these things in business, or with lawyers involved. Only once or twice have I EVER seen anything remotely like this from a private individual, and in those cases it was fromsomeone known to be extremely protective of his privacy...

Without such a disclaimer, the recipient can do with the letter or email as he or she wants, as snostar noted.

NOTE: This should be fair warning that you shouldn't ever send an email that you wouldn't want printed on the evening news, because it could end up there!

Thanks divgradcurl and snostar for that information. It is helpful. What about information on discussion boards that are available to public or all members of a game site (such as ItsYourturn.com) ?

I'm also wondering if a person can publish another person's personal home address. Seems a privacy issue but with the internet now it's easy to get address off of a directory site. In one of the messages someone sent me was an address included in the dialogue. I removed it but still wonder if that could be a problem. This particular message was between two people with the third party having access to the account and he copied the messages (then later sent them to me). So the person who sent the message my way got it by accessing the account (with permission) and he copied and save it.

Sounds like a soap opera.

Thanks again

What about information on discussion boards that are available to public or all members of a game site (such as ItsYourturn.com) ?

Click to expand...

I don't understand -- do you want to take material from a discussion board (like this one) and publish it somewhere else? Technically that would be infringing on the discussion board's copyright, unless you had permission.

I'm also wondering if a person can publish another person's personal home address.

Click to expand...

An address is a public record, so yes, you could publish it.

Of course, the question is why do you want to do this? Even if, say, publishing a name, address and phone number is legal (and it is), do you want to face a harrassment suit, or even a temporary restraining order, for doing so? Even if they couldn't win a case, it would still take you time and effort and money to defend it. So, you need to figure out what you plan on gaining from doing this, and is it worth the risks.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt...

divgradcurl, thanks again for the response. The discussion board is discussion board much like this though it's a game site. They have different chat boards such as general chat, checkers chat, etc.

I don't want to publish the phone number/address. But it was in one of the messages and I didn't see it. I've had the website up for a couple of days and have been fine tuning it a bit. In the meantime, my main antagonist found out about it and became rather mad. He was upset the address was in one of the files. So after finding it, I removed the address and finally the entire message from the site. This person's messages to me have now (as of this afternoon) become more threatening. Not being sure if the site would be legally ok I simply removed it within a few hours of his first message to me (which was last night) and began writing this discussion board for advice. But he's a hot head and today he's still fuming and threatening that I'll hear from his lawyer (even though the site had been deleted). It wasn't even his address. It was his message to another person that he shared with a third party. The third party sent it to me.

Anyway, the site is down and I have no intentions of putting it up again. It's not worth the emotional grief. I am concerned if I've done something wrong however. I don't think I have but want to be sure.

Thanks

DDD