Is it legal in the state of Pennsylvania to start a website for
students to discuss our university online in a "forum/discussion board
atmosphere"?

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Clarification of Question by cushmaj-ga on 31 Oct 2005 23:06 PST

Yes I attend the university that I am speaking of. I want to create a
website called *****forum.com and allow students to speak about the
university and other things relating to it. I am just worried about
possible legal reprocussions with having the schools name in the
domain. Please let me know. Thanks!

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Clarification of Question by cushmaj-ga on 01 Nov 2005 12:21 PST

I understand. So say if I use a generic term in the domain name can I
specify that only students attending the school are able to join or is
that in violation too?

I am not a lawyer, an internet expert, a Pennsylvanian, or an official
Google Answers researcher, so don't take my comments for anything more
than the two cents they're worth (if that.) But I can't imagine
there's anything intrinsically illegal in creating the kind of
discussion website you're describing. (Of course, if any of the
content on the site is defamatory or obscene, that could cause legal
problems, but that's a bit of a different question.)

What occurs to me, though, is that if this website is created with the
university's resoruces (for example, if it's on their servers) then if
the university didn't approve of the site for whatever reason, it
would probably be well within its rights to insist that it be removed
from their systems. But, again, that's a bit different from the
question of whether such a site can legally exist at all.

We have this little thing in the U.S. called freedom of speech and
expression, so of course you are free to create such a site.  I'll
assume you are not from the U.S. yourself.  If you are, then you
should have known the answer already.

Oh!  That's a different matter.  You may run into trademark or similar
issues if you include the school's name in the domain name.  A
researcher can probably look into the specifics.

I'm no legal expert, but allowing only students from your school to
join should be ok.  Make sure you include a disclaimer on the home
page stating that the site is not operated or endorsed by the school.

I'm no lawyer either, but will offer an 'opinion'.

Seems to me that the only legal hot water you could potential get into
would have to do with intellectual property infringement or libelous
remarks made on the site.  As long as you're careful about that, I
don't see why you can't.