Our forum receives legal complaints every few months. It's fairly common for a forum of this magnitude, as I'm sure you can imagine. Most of the complaints are simply that - complaints, but with a lawyer behind them - and none have gone to the point of lawsuit. Nor do I expect any ever will. Part of my job is to make sure that doesn't happen. A 'cease and desist' is just the first step towards a lawsuit and an agreement can always be reached before the situation becomes dire.

With this recent complaint, we agreed that the affair remain confidential. I will stand by that confidentiality. I can reveal that there were a few posts deleted off some very old posts in some very old threads. No one was banned. lkfmdc and taai gihk yahn and perhaps a few others, deleted some of the threads that they had started, which is an option for any thread that you start that hasn't been locked. This was their decision. There were no requests of them to do so.

I have had a few members express fear about posting now. They feel they cannot express themselves freely for fear of lawsuit. There is an intrinsic problem with that line of thinking which really lies with the member and what they post. Nothing has changed legally. You are as legally responsible for anything you post here, just as you are anywhere on the web. Know that as long as you are willing to delete something that has generated a complaint, it is unlikely that you will ever be sued.

Besides, like this situation, and all the other situations that have preceded it and will follow, they'll come after me first.