Just received an unofficial 'cease & desist' email from a user on our car forum.
A thread involving this user and their publication in a magazine was started, and quickly devolved into some name-calling from both users and the complainant.
The central theme to the flaming from the users revolved around the complainants claims in that magazine and elsewhere about that user's active participation in a motorsport.
Essentially, said person claimed to be an active participant, and when asked to show proof, the user either avoided the question or returned insults instead.
A few users decided to manipulate some images of said person and their car, depicting that person as a fictional character.
In the user's email, they claimed that the images were stolen from their website, although they are available freely to any visitor of the site. The site does state that all IP from the site is protected under law and cannot be used without express written permission.
The user asked we remove all of their images and references to their companies (although there were no such references), and followed the request up with a thinly vieled threat of legal action.
Long story short, I'd like to know if this person has legal grounds for this complaint.
The forum the thread was posted in requires registration to view, so the general public does not have access to it. This user agreed to our TOS, which they violated by name-calling. This user was an active participant in the thread, posting 13 times over the course of 8 pages, total of 223 posts, none of which contained any indication of their displeasure with the forum or it's staff.
Thank you for your time.
A thread involving this user and their publication in a magazine was started, and quickly devolved into some name-calling from both users and the complainant.
The central theme to the flaming from the users revolved around the complainants claims in that magazine and elsewhere about that user's active participation in a motorsport.
Essentially, said person claimed to be an active participant, and when asked to show proof, the user either avoided the question or returned insults instead.
A few users decided to manipulate some images of said person and their car, depicting that person as a fictional character.
In the user's email, they claimed that the images were stolen from their website, although they are available freely to any visitor of the site. The site does state that all IP from the site is protected under law and cannot be used without express written permission.
The user asked we remove all of their images and references to their companies (although there were no such references), and followed the request up with a thinly vieled threat of legal action.
Long story short, I'd like to know if this person has legal grounds for this complaint.
The forum the thread was posted in requires registration to view, so the general public does not have access to it. This user agreed to our TOS, which they violated by name-calling. This user was an active participant in the thread, posting 13 times over the course of 8 pages, total of 223 posts, none of which contained any indication of their displeasure with the forum or it's staff.
Thank you for your time.
