facebook group content - legal responsibility

[iloveglee]

Can anyone tell me who is legally responsible for the content placed on a facebook group page - is it the person placing the content, or the administrator of the group. A member of a group that I am administrator of has placed content on the page (a logo). The owner of the logo is accusing me of contravening the trade marks act on the basis that I am administrator of the group. This member has disabled my ability to remove the offending post. If I remove him from the group, which I am able to do, any other member can put him back on as a member. I do not seem to be able to find out what the law says about content which is placed on a facebook group page, in the event that this content breaks some law or another. I personally do not have a problem with what is being posted, it is the owner of the logo who is objecting.

[ummmm]

Are you sure he can be added back in?

[jno]

if you are unable to remove something then you can hardly be seen as responsible for it.

[iloveglee]

thanks for these quick replies. I don't know how my ability to remove this has been disabled, in fact what I am really interested to know is - can I be taken to court for a post made by another member of the group just because I am the administratator. The argument with the logo owner is that I have to stop the group members from doing this, and if I don't then I am the person who will be taken to court, not the person who has placed this offending item on the page. I don't have a problem with this logo being there, I don't especially want to remove it, or the person who placed it there, but I am unsure of my legal position as administrator. The person who I am in dispute with has a personal grievance against me and this really is what it is about, but he is a barrister and has plenty of money and resources to take me to court to test it, I do not have money to lose, should a case go against me and I cannot make sense of the trademarks act as it applies to entries made on facebook. I should say this logo is not being placed on this page in order to make any gain, not is it to do damage, it is merely being placed there as a link for the members of the group to this particular organisation in which they have an interest.

[bednobs]

who is the person who has stopped your ability to remove the post? The barrister? if so (or even if not!) just tell him you can't remove it for some reason, and to take it up with the post originator.
Failing that, get the person to take their own post down, or close the group and start another one. Personally, common sense tells me that the person who p[osted it is responsible, and although this bloke is a barrister, he probably isn't a trade-mark attourney, and i can't really see wh would gain by taking you to court except for compelling you to take it down, and you can do that by the above methods

[pink-kittens]

http://www.facebook.com/terms.php

Your answer probably lies in here

[jackthehat]

If I am reading this correctly, (using the information supplied so far) there is NO issue here at all.
This type of logo is advertising and if this logo is correctly advertising a service on a page that isn't obscene or defammatory he'll have no legs to stand on.
He can huff and puff and waste his money but I think it's a non-starter..............

What 'type' of trademark/logo is it ?
And what services is it linking to ?

[bednobs]

having read pinks link, just tell the person they can report it to FB who will then just remove it
http://www.facebook.c...ight.php?howto_report

[joko]

have you asked the person to remove it?

if its not his own logo i dont see why he'd care

tell him he will be removed if he doesnt

[iloveglee]

I don't mind the logo being there, I don't want to remove it but I just want to know what my legal position is as administrator of the group. I want to be able to tell the person who owns the logo, and is complaining about its presence, that I am not responsible for what members of the group place on the page but to know that it is legally the case - that am not responsible. The person who has put the logo on the page and disabled my ability to remove it is a member of the group, the barrister is not a member of the group. It is the barrister who is objecting to the logo's presence. I do not mind that members of the group place this logo on the page, nor do I mind them disabling my ability to remove it, but I do mind that this barrister seems to be saying that I am responsible for what other members of the group put there. If I do not remove what other members put there then I am responsible - in his opinion.

[jackthehat]

You haven't answered my questions.

If a trademark has been designed 'specifically' to highlight the existence of an 'organisation' that particular group/organisation would be hard-pressed to lobby for its removal from a perfect legitimate site/page/group.

[bednobs]

well i haveven you the answer, to the best of my knowledge, from FB's terms and condition, which indicate that the person posting is responsible for what they post.
if you are *that* worried about being taken to court, then just do as people have suggested, to remove the possibility of it. It seems to me though, that you just want to stick one over on the person who you are having a spat with

[iloveglee]

thanks again for all this useful information. Absolutely right, I have no intention of doing what 'this person' wants me to do - unless of course I am taken to court and found guilty. Then I shall have to. Until then .........

[bednobs]

does that mean that you really can remove the posts, but you just don't want to? :)

[iloveglee]

In fact, I cannot remove the offending post, usually there is a little cross on the right hand side opposite what has been posted, in this case a photo of a logo. With this particular one, there is no little cross, all of the other posts have a little cross and normally I am able to remove anything from this page. The way it seems to work is that any member can remove their own post (and this person would remove it if I asked him to), and usually I can remove anything. I haven't asked him if he did anything to disable my ability to remove it. Basically, the issue is we don't believe we are committing any crime by placing this logo on the group page because we are simply providing a link to the website and including the logo. The 'owner' of the logo has a problem with me and objects to me providing this link and is threatening legal action. I am not sure of my legal position and cannot afford to allow this to go to court and be tested. At the same time I do not wish to comply with what this person is insisting I do if he is wrong about the legal position. This is why I have asked if anyone knows what the legal position is. This is a 'new' facebook group and they appear to operate differently from the 'old' groups. For example in an old group you could send a message to all of the group members at the same time, now you cannot do this. There are other differences as well.