I was threatened by Wrong Planet based on my opinions here.

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As any ruling would have to apply to the entire Internet, I am sure your layer would like the fees from that case.

Under the American system you have to pay your own.

Opinion does grant rights, as Thomas Jefferson said,

"Freedom of the press applies to those who own one."

Please show us what was done wrong, we're not trying to take any freedoms away from you. If you do bring out a long law suit against this website it will be ruined, why would you want to take away something that has helped many people get through tough times?

Seriously?

A rule was broken, completely by accident, and action was taken in accordance with the rules of this board. I for one am happy that we are so well protected here.

And this is like a private club. They can limit your speech however you want.

Be upset, fine. But you're only embarrassing yourself now.

Mao was a Chairman


Merle

I don't have any knowledge of the background to this, don't know what has been said previously, and so the following points I make are not made in reference or reply to any comments in particular, they are just general points of principle:

(1) It's rather silly to talk about suing for a sizeable sum of money. Yes, something like that might be a brilliant plan - if you're suing a mega-corporation with millions in the bank. If you're suing an individual or a small organisation, it might mean diddly squat if you pursue and win a legal case if the individual or organisation don't have the assets to pay a massive compensation award. You might be seeing $$$$$$$$$$ in front of your eyes, but you can't get what someone or something else hasn't got to give, and such damages don't come out of some central legal pot, you'd have to recover them from the other party, and if they can't pay, they can't pay (although it's possible there might be some insurance coverage, but that's not certain).

The litigation and compensation culture in the US has reached staggeringly silly levels, and such threats don't reflect well on the individual or company doing the threatening - remember the history of Autism Speaks threatening to sue a teenage autistic girl?

(2) The next thread I looked at was one relating to teenage bullying.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt95550.html

Now, again, I want to make the specific point that this is not in response to any comments the OP made previously, I'm just stating a general point of principle:

It's all very well spouting off about freedom of speech, but with rights come responsibilities. One person's idea of censorship contrary to principles of freedom of speech could be another person's crackdown on hate speech or offensive comments or cyberbullying.

Again, I don't know what the contentious comments or posts said, but people should bear in mind that freedom of speech only goes so far, yes, in theory, you can say anything and everything you want, but at some point it's possible that your 'right' to freedom of speech might infringe on someone else's 'right' not to be subjected to hate speech or cyberbullying or whatever.

And I would also point out that it's one thing to have arguments about issues, about what people think causes autism, about whether people should get a formal diagnosis or not, or what particular therapies and interventions might or might not work, or it's possible to disagree about the merits of different charities or organisations or research studies or news coverage, but I think it's a bit more of a grey area about how personal you can get in terms of criticising an individual, there's constructive criticism, there are valid points, and then there's causing offense and nastiness.

It's possible that different people have different opinions as to what constitutes acceptable criticism and what constitutes an offensive personal attack.

(3) It's up to the moderators and board owners to decide where they want to draw the line really. Because although yes, there's the principle of free speech, people have to be registered members and there are terms and conditions of board useage, and you can't just say heck free speech I can say what I want, if that contravenes the posting guidelines.