Ask any solicitor to take a similar case on a no win no fee basis and see what they say.
What has tenant done to the electrics?
- Thread starter art1
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There are limits. Specifically, it would be unwise to post "advice" on a safety-critical matter that you know to be false:
Online Safety Act 2023:
179False communications offence
(1)A person commits an offence if—(a)the person sends a message (see section 182),
(b)the message conveys information that the person knows to be false,
(c)at the time of sending it, the person intended the message, or the information in it, to cause non-trivial psychological or physical harm to a likely audience, and
(d)the person has no reasonable excuse for sending the message.
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Interesting debate, I was told many years ago, if a normal person tells a buyer when selling a car, it's OK, and it turns out it was not, and the fault would not be apparent to most people, that's OK. But if one is a motor mechanic one could be found liable.
So if I click on @SUNRAY and look at about, there is nothing to say you have any electrical knowledge. However, @bernardgreen shows he did electronics, and @securespark only dreams!
Not looked to see what it says about me, but in real terms, unless our advice causes a death, no one is really interested, even when it causes a death, to tell your girlfriend to turn off the stop tap before turning off the power, was not even challenged after her death.
I would need to suggest some rather drastic things to be found guilty. And I would have to know it was false.
Basically this is the case of someone deliberately giving wrong/dangerous advice.
Instead, a diyer giving an opinion or advice on an open forum would not satisfy the conditions of the act and won't be committing an offence.
As @ericmark pointed out, it's buyers beware or... "diyers beware of online advice".
This site seems to be on US servers.
If so, it is protected by Section 230. That legislation allows sites to argue that they are not (directly) responsible for content posted by users. I am not a lawyer. My (lay) understanding is that if someone wanted to prosecute any one for posting on this site, they would need to apply to the US courts, who might be inclined to cite "free speech".
I have a reseller hosting account in the USA. I built a site that criticised a UK spread betting company on behalf of a customer. They sent a cease and desist letter to my customer via a motorbike courier (the domain name was registered to him). I rang Total Choice Hosting (my providers), they told that they had already batted away the cease and desist.
To sue someone via the US courts over content on American sites is incredibly expensive. That said, yeah, it can be done via UK courts, bypassing liability on behalf of the site owner, nevertheless, you are probably looking at hundreds of thousands of pounds.
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I'm sure that 'If I stated on this or any other forum to go grab those 2 wires and touch them together' and the person did that resulting in very serious injuries, such as blindnes, first degree burns, the injuries caused by being thrown across the room etc, starting the fire which kills his wife and baby and putting a terrace of houses in risk of collapse etc, that there would soon be a Police investigation. After that H&S may be forced into action. My credentials and work experiences (Including 2000A 3 phase supplies, extensive control systems running 75KW pumps or fans in massive plant rooms, installing 11KV substations etc) would soon be discovered. I imagine my feet would not touch the ground (Mettaforrickally).
So getting back to this specific thread 'If I advised OP
I'm sure that there would soon be a Police investigation. After that H&S may be forced into action. My credentials and work experiences (Including 2000A 3 phase supplies, extensive control systems running 75KW pumps or fans in massive plant rooms, installing 11KV substations etc) would soon be discovered. I imagine my feet would not touch the ground (Mettaforrickally).
The Online Safety Act excerpt that I posted is not related to the operators of the site. It makes it an offence for a user of the site to post something that is intended to cause harm.
No, I really don't think so.
Difference being that you know that it would be dangerous, having the experience and qualifications.
Read the act and understand that in this scenario you would be committing an offence.
This does not apply to a diyer who offers advice without knowing that it can be dangerous; they won't satisfy the points of the act and therefore won't be committing an offence.
I hope the difference is clear.
I was about to write something very similar. I'm no lawyer, but I'm not so sure that the law would necessarily be all thst interested in where/how advice had been given, and how 'publicly' it had been given, if it had resulted in harm, damage or death.
However, as I recently wrote, one of the saving graces of forums such as this is that there are sufficient knowledgeable participants that any advice which was incorrect, dangerous or even just ';questionable' would not go uncorrected or unchallenged.
The only problem with that John is that the bad advice might have been given and acted on before anyone had chance to challenge it.
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That is a problem, and I have sometimes been surprised that no one has added to what I have said, and I am dyslexic, so I can easily write something which is misunderstood. And so easy to use a double negative, or phrase which is misunderstood, like extra low voltage or low voltage, there was a post about a dimmer switch where the instructions referred to high voltage, I am sure that was a mistake, I am sure the unit was only for a limited range of low voltage.
What seemed strange to me, was the guy was willing to ignore what was written on the actual dimmer switch, and be led by some instructions he had found.
I am sure we have all read instructions where it seems likely as section has been cut and pasted from some similar product, and has nothing to do with the product in question.
When someone say go and take a running jump, it is likely not what they really mean. Same with throw the book at him. Unless a Terry Pratchett disk world novel.
That is, of course, a possibility but, at least in this forum, the corrections/challenges nearly always appear pretty rapidly.
It's going to be so hard to prove intent that I doubt we'll ever see an attempt. And is "non-trivial" defined?
Seems like I was incorrect about the location of the servers with respect to the OSA. Tnx
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