Dear Sajha Friends,
I just received a piece of registered mail from a law firm. The letter contains the subject "Notice to Cease and Desist"

The reason for this mail was because a client of the law firm is mentioned in few of the threads in a negative light.

As you know sajha users share immense information through sajha in order to help out other members of the Nepali polulation at large. There are reviews published on companies which may be good or bad according to the way it is perceived by the writer.

Personally, I had never heard of the company in question till I received this letter today, and in searching for the company name in the google sajha search, it returned 3 results for this company name.

The content of the letter asks me to remove the reference within 5 days, or possibly face legal action.

I want to know if there are anyone with business law/libel/defamation experience who have any suggestions on this regard.

PS: the names of the Law firm and it's client are not going to be made public at this time.

Its most likely fake...ignore it, they dont have any legal jurisdiction to prosecute sajha

From what I know, since you have the disclaimer, which clearly states, "IN NO EVENT SHALL SAJHA.COM BE LIABLE TO ANY USER OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR LOST PROFITS) RESULTING FROM THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE WEB SITE OR THE MATERIAL, OR ANY LOSS INCURRED AT AN ADVERTISED or PARTNER or SPONSOR SITE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT SAJHA.COM IS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES," you should be fine. However, if I were you, I would remove those names(or threads), look into legality issue, and, if wrongly threatened, since u have the written evidence (email), I would look into legality issue to counter-attack.

I expect the the legal experts to come forward and help sajha.

Sincerely,
Megalomaniac.

 

 

If I were you, I would get a lawyer and talk with him!!!!
After all, this is your job right? I mean, moderating this forum and stuff.
Anything that happens here, will be a precedent and if you let a seed sow, it will become something quite big soon enough. http://www.sajha.com/sajha/chat/smileys/m-cool.gif

Mr. SAN,

I don't think it's genuinely been attacked to you. It's obvious from the nature of site and disclaimer you post in this site that you're not responsible for contents and posting by the members here.
Should such a threaten be genuine, you better consult your lawyer .....may be you might be better of for counterattack against his intimidation to you.

Nothing will happen, I believe against Sajha.

[This posting flagged as inappropriate]

I dont think it is legitimate email. After reading through DISCLAIMER in sajha.com, I guess, you should be safe.                       

Ved555.....ur comment ez just grt........ya i think this act ez also by bahuns........lol............this show how educated, intellectual you are.....it just reflects from single comment my fren....

Anything written or said in sajha dot com should not be taken seriously :-) It's halla or guff only.. there's no authenticity.. sajha dot come is for entertainment only.

If you are taking it seriously.. then that makes you an example of a stupid.. ha ha.. how about that? But you don't have to take this seriously as well.. ha ha.. Enjoy..

Update:

I have sent an email to the lawyer saying that I have no intention of keeping information about the company in sajha that is not verifiable and possibly defamatory to the company.

In the email I included 3 links to other sites which were carrying the same info that was posted in sajha. I implied these could be possible sources of the info posted in sajha. One of which happened to be Google Groups - I wonder if they went after google too...

Finally I'm glad that this happened because upon some research I have found the following info, which protects discussion site from postings made by other users. Taken from http://chillingeffects.org/defamation/faq.cgi

Question: Can an ISP or the host of the message board or chat room be held liable for
defamatory of libelous statements made by others on the message board?

Answer: Not in the United States. Under 47 U.S.C. sec. 230(c)(1)
(CDA Sec. 230): "No provider or user of an interactive computer service
shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information
provided by another information content provider." This provision has
been uniformly interpreted by the Courts to provide complete protection
against defamation or libel claims made against an ISP, message board
or chat room where the statements are made by third parties. Note that
this immunity does not extend to claims made under intellectual
property laws.

Question: Must an ISP or message
board host delete postings that someone tells him/her are defamatory?
Can the ISP or message board delete postings in response to a request
from a third party?

Answer: No, they are not required to delete. 47 U.S.C. sec. 230
gives most ISPs and message board hosts the discretion to keep postings
or delete them, whichever they prefer, in response to claims by others
that a posting is defamatory or libelous. Most ISPs and message board
hosts also post terms of service that give them the right to delete or
not delete messages as they see fit and such terms have generally been
held to be enforceable under law.

there is nothing to be worried of.i get this now and then for twake production.....you tube got one on behalf of me but my videos are still there as you tube simply didnt give a damn.

by the way why dont you share what was it? indepth story.

As the posting about the information about anyone does not count as "Intellectual Property", I do not think there will be any problem to Sajha.

If you alll know, youtube has banned any original video from British Artist to be shown in Britain, just couple of days ago, which is described as "Intellectual Property".

(This justification are based upon Common Law and Case Law in England and Wales, not in US where sajha.com is hosted.)

Look at Chapter 5, part 512/513, Title 17 of the United States Code.

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html
Add this to ur Disclaimer. Its not that legally strong
if you do continue, you are not agreeing to these terms and you are violating code 431.322.12 of the Internet Privacy Act signed by Bill Clinton in 1995 and that means that you CANNOT threaten or harm our ISP(s) or any person(s) or company storing this site, and cannot prosecute any person(s) affiliated with this domain which includes family, friends or individuals who run or enter this web site.