The legal considerations of your web presence - revisited
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2010-10-26 20:52:39 - Graham Ellis
Can you link that image from another web site? Can you publish pictures you took at the school's sports day? Are you allowed to register the your neighbour's name as a domain? Must you remove out of date information from your web site? Who's responsible if a user of a forum that you host post serious allegations against someone else? What if your web server is used for sending out spam? Does your company's web site have to include the registered address? Do you have to answer emails that are sent to you? There's quite a lot to providing and running a web site these days!
The following is a list of some of the things I'm aware of - and I've added a link in each case, as a research starting point. But I'm not a lawyer, and so I can't tell you (nor take responsibility) for how accurate up to date, or lacking bias they are, nor whether the information covers England, Scotland, the EU, or some other area. You use anything on our site (and probably at most of these too) at your own risk. Standard advise that I've read tends to suggest (a) if in doubt, ask / consult an expert and (b) do not draw conclusions about a specific set of circumstances based on other and / or more general guidance.
Does all this apply to companies and individuals? ... again, best ask the experts but my understanding is that there is a requirement on companies, individuals, and government organisations to meet the same laws in most cases. Goverment sometimes has "Crown Immunity" to make it easier for them, and sometimes they have to be more stringent because of freedom of information. Smaller companies are sometimes excused a little of the high volume of paperwork that large companies have to go through.