h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Publishing and hosting material on the internet costs money, and incurs legal obligations and potential risk. In order to minimise the risk to individuals of becoming legally liable for the actions of h2g2 as a whole through no direct fault of their own, a community-led h2g2 would need to be incorporated in such a way as to confer upon it the status of limited liability. This means that members' liability would be limited to a fixed (possibly even nominal) sum, unless they had done something overtly negligent or illegal, or that invalidated their claim to limited liability.
"

Who are the members? All registered researchers? Or those running the place?

That's what we'd have to debate and consult on.

We need to have it so that if the site gets sued it's the site, and not reseachers personally.

There are various technical and legal strucutres - for instance if we were to form a company limited by guarentee, to be a member you'd have to be willing to guaretee £1 and no more if the company went bankrupt. So if we were sued then no indivudal member would have their house taken off htem.

I think that there has to be a paper form and a name and address involved. You can also have legal structures preventing a company limited by guaretee making a profit. WHOAMI has been looking into the pros and cons of the differnet legal entities.

Basically we'd need to get legal advice and come up with a structure that everyone is comfortable with. Or as many people as possible are comfortable.

Graham_S has made some very intelligent remarks on the h2g2c2 google-page here http://groups.google.com/group/h2g2communityconsortium/browse_thread/thread/e3aeaa3837d4e93e#

Perhaps we should draw his attention to this convo?


Cheers!
Martin
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Free?! Does that mean I can't get a Discount?
I thought I heard a Dolphin Wistle ...

Yes please. Drag him over here.

Hi

Just popped in to add a bit of info that you might find useful. Moderation companies and organisations who publish/moderate user-generated content take out insurance against getting sued.

You might want to consider doing the same - it's the easiest way of making sure that you don't end up emptying the bank because someone has posted up something defamatory.

However, whoever writes the defamatory article can still be sued though; the person or organisation libelled have the option of suing the publisher (h2g2) - or the individual - or *both*. It's their decision.

Hope this helps, good luck out there!

Ooh thanks Peta!

That is a good one. We'll need to cost that..

Kea - I've drawn up a draft constitution to take your concerns into account. I hope that you find it helpful.