Protecting an Investor Blog

[pjdwork]

Good afternoon everyone,

I am currently looking for the best method of protecting my companies website. The site allows for online investor-to-company conferences. The issue is making sure the Terms of Use is read.

Are we liable, for instance, if in this chat room a company discusses illegal insider trading issues? Would everyone going into that chat room have to have read the Terms of Use before entering? Upon entering the website?

My company is quite small and no one here is a legal guru. We would obtain legal aid but are cash strapped at the moment.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Good morning,

I am posting today in regards to the blog aspect of my companies investor relations website. The blog contains the thoughts and ideas of an employee at my company. In no way is it intended as definitive advice, nor do we want people making important financial decisions based on the contents. It is merely intended to provoke thought and discussion.

What is the best way to protect ourselves from any legal action against the blog? Would a disclaimer work? Is there something else needed?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Unfortunately people see it as secondary to determine the true nature and requirements of their business. What I'm going to tell you is general and should no way be taken as an opinion of what you should do in your situation.

1) If you're running an investment site, you should have already have some legal representation given the nature of the topic. There are also regulations which you should be aware of before undertaking a venture in this area.

2) There is no absolute that users won't sue your web site. You can do the best you can to set up your terms of use to be read before users can participate in your site. You must make sure that you have obtained the user's agreement to those terms as best as possible such as having a check box that the user must physically check before joining. Chances are that if you are not regulating what people discuss in conference, e.g. you are just a service provide not a content provider, you should probably not be liable for the content of those discussions.

3) Disclaimers are always a good idea but not absolute. They should be readable and noticeable. Your terms of use will be important and should contain whatever mandatory disclosures you need in your industry.

As I don't know the nature of the blog and business itself, this is generally what we do.

1)