Internet Forum Free Advertising

[Uranium235]

Wasn't sure where to post this, this was as close as I could get...

Say someone (Let's call him Rob), runs a non-profit website with a forum on it. Rob doesn't want any form of advertising on his website.

John signs up for his forum. John has an signature (A personalized message at the end of his posts) that is an animated Flash program that is more-or-less an advertisement to his server hosting business.

Rob is not making any money to pay for his site off of this advertising. John, however, is profiting off of the traffic Rob's site generates.

Could Rob bring John to court to pay for his 'free advertising space'?

 

[Uranium235]

For example, say this forum was free of advertising, but I showed up and created an HTML code in my signature that created pop-up ads for my business and flashed annoying banners saying 'you have won!'?

I'm almost 100% positive this is illegal and 'John' owes 'Rob', but someone I'm talking to is claiming I'm very very wrong.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

That's a tough call. You need to specify this in your terms of use and make sure that they state thoroughly the protection you want. For example, ours state that our site is for personal use only and commercial use is prohibited. Under such terms, John could be pulled into court for violation -- but you could easily delete his signature and send him an email. This would mitigate damages.