we had a similar situation last year with a nightclub company..

we posted a statement by the companies former owner on our homepage.. the company then emailed us threatening us with liable action if we didn't remove it.

they went onto say if the former owner posted the statement himself on the forum then they could not do anything, but by actually posting it ourselves as the website owners we were opening ourselves to prosecution.

we removed the statement from the homepage and the former owner who is 1 of our close friends posted it himself on the site. this in turn stopped all action being taken against us due to the disclaimers and the forum guidelines which stated that all posts and comments are the property of the poster and the owners of the website are not responsible for anything posted.

the company then issued a formal statement to the press in turn as a rebuttal against the original statement that the former owner posted on our site. we have since started rebuilding relations with that nightclub, altho we stand by the original owner and we don't promote the nightclub ourselves, altho we don't mind them coming on the site and promoting themselves.. it's kind of hush hush with our managers that we won't promote them..



basically ask them to give a statement in defense regarding the issue, and if they refuse then i don't see how any court would uphold any prosecution..