Very interesting argument...

...Sorry, we can not and will not comply with Thai Law. The comments in question left on the website are protected speech under the Safe Harbor Provision of US law. The site is hosted in the US and it is a US based website and needs to comply with US law, not Thai law.

I am sorry that I am not able to make special provisions for Thai people, everyone is equal on TEFLWatch. I urge you to make comments on TEFLWatch, you have that right. But I can not and will not take away someone elses right to free speech away.

You may seek litigation in Thailand for any perceived offenses you believe have been committed, but you will have an unenforceable judgment. You do need to seek redress in US courts because this is a US site, but be prepared for a countersuit under provisions of the law that prevent trying to take away the human rights of Americans abroad...

Open Letter to Sarasas Ektra in Thailand - TEFLWatch.Org - Truth and Justice in the TEFL World

Good response to a rediculous request from a typical always want is their own way thai.

My first post too!

be interesting to see wot happens....

i read that thread also, and it appears that the fella in question is known by them... and still living and working in thailand...

hmmm.

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... You may seek litigation in Thailand for any perceived offenses you believe have been committed, but you will have an unenforceable judgment. You do need to seek redress in US courts because this is a US site, but be prepared for a countersuit under provisions of the law that prevent trying to take away the human rights of Americans abroad...

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This part is interesting... You cannot seek judgment because the site (presumably they mean the servers?) is located in the US, but they can seek judgment against you by countersuit for "trying to take away the human rights of Americans abroad"!? Anyone else see the inconsistency and double-standard in that?

And, strictly speaking, they are wrong. Just because the servers/website are hosted in the US that does not protect you from liability in another jurisdiction - particularly if, as I suspect, the guys running the site are actually resident in Thailand?

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Originally Posted by AntRobertson

particularly if, as I suspect, the guys running the site are actually resident in Thailand?

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Hard to prove if it's all been set up properly though.

^
True, hard but not impossible. I didn't read the link to be honest, but for arguments sake if an offence had been committed that warranted investigation/prosecution it would be possible to link any 'off-shore' hosted site to a foreigner resident in Thailand.

All conjecture anyways, this is undoutably just more of the usual Internet posturing, posing and arguing bollocks! :D

I believe the 'suit/counter-suit' nonsense is based on doing it all in US courts.

As you said, t seems to be internet big cojones talking.

For Webmasters the primary concern isn't so much which country host/server is based, or where a poster is resident. It is the agreement between the hosting service and the person the site is registered with.

If the registered owner permits material to be posted which is prohibited by the hosting agreement then the Host will pull the site PDQ regardless of where the Host/owner/poster is based. Most hosting agreements prohibit just about anything and everything other than recipes for making ice these days.

Bruce of TEFL International was threatening to sue them as well and they have parted ways with Bangkok Phil.