Legal Question in Business Law in New Jersey
If i open a social website that allows people to list by name and city/state, personal opinions about people. Like a product review , but a person review to help people prior to having contact with them. Will I have any legal problems.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Probably so. There is a growing body of law having to do with the responsibilties of various kinds of publishers on the Internet with respect to defamatory content and invasions of privacy. Your lawyer will have to be prepared to deal with requests to remove material and defending any suits that result. If you permit people to use a pseudonym to post material, you will no doubt be receiving subpoenae requiring you to disclose information about people who post and your policy must be consistent with the law at the risk of increasing your liability. Since the site sounds as it it could become an online gossip forum, if pages are searchable, this comment will be picked up by the search engines and show when employers search for informaition on prospective employees. When an applicant believes that something on your blog has resulted in the loss of a job opportunity for them, you will be in the middle of a suit. You may ultimately win that suit on First Amendment grounds, but you need to be prepared to defend it economically and otherwise. So, if you can't make a lot of money operating your site, you probably should think of something else.
See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm
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