Unintentional Violation of Terms of Service

[jtjumper]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MI
I recently discovered that posts I had made to a website violated its terms of service. After making this discovery I promptly removed the infringing material. Am I required by law to terminate my account at the website? Do I need to inform the website owners?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[The Occultist]

Message boards are not governed by law. The most severe action they'll take is ban your account from accessing. There is no need to admit you did anything wrong. If they caught you, then apologize and explain that you deleted everything. If they didn't catch you, then no harm done. Relax.

 

[justalayman]

Message boards are not governed by law. The most severe action they'll take is ban your account from accessing. There is no need to admit you did anything wrong. If they caught you, then apologize and explain that you deleted everything. If they didn't catch you, then no harm done. Relax.

well, they could charge any stated fees proscribed withing the TOS, if any and if OP refused to pay, sue for them. This website had a situation a few years ago where that did happen. The TOS of this site allow for a financial penalty for certain violations of the TOS. The poster continued to post after being banned under multiple names and was eventually taken to court over the issue.

If the admin/owner/webmaster/whatever does not contact you about the posts, there is no need to report yourself. You can if you would like and explain it was an unintentional error and you took steps to correct the problem. They may see that as showing sincere regret for the action and give you some brownie points (yogi button, attaboys, or whatever they feel appropriate) but in reality, I would think simply leaving it alone unless contacted would be the best course of action.

 

[The Occultist]

Haha let's not bring IAAL into this.

 

[jtjumper]

Message boards are not governed by law. The most severe action they'll take is ban your account from accessing. There is no need to admit you did anything wrong. If they caught you, then apologize and explain that you deleted everything. If they didn't catch you, then no harm done. Relax.

Actually the website in question was facebook

 

[The Occultist]

Actually the website in question was facebook

I still stand by what I said. The largeness of the company does not change the laws (in most cases, anyways). Did they catch you? If not, then stop advertising the fact that you did something wrong. If so, what steps have they taken?

Oh, and FB tends to not pursue charges against compliant individuals: if they ban you, stay away, and they will be more than happy to leave you alone.

 

[You Are Guilty]

Not to nitpick, but was the material just in violation of the TOS, or flat out illegal? There is a world of difference in how to handle, for example, posting a picture someone else took vs. one of say, child porn.

 

[jtjumper]

Not to nitpick, but was the material just in violation of the TOS, or flat out illegal? There is a world of difference in how to handle, for example, posting a picture someone else took vs. one of say, child porn.

It was a picture someone else took. The thing I'm wondering about is since I argeed to the terms of service in order to use facebook, wouldn't I lose right to use facebook? Wouldn't that require me end my account?
Thanks.

 

[The Occultist]

Have they made any contact with you about this? If not, let it go and keep using it.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

As previously stated...

You are only guilty in their eyes if they call you on it. Keep your mouth shut and see what happens. They have many people violate the terms.

 

[jtjumper]

Thanks everybody, this has been helpful!