More of Bob Roth's Interview
Q.
Okay. Why should webmasters be concerned about insurance? I guess I should say adult webmasters, but I guess mainstream webmasters should be concerned too.
A.
Webmasters today are a brand new breed of entrepreneur and most of them have not run businesses before where they have had a lot of commercial insurance. So, we're starting
out from scratch with a lot of these people and it's something to watch them grow. It's quite a learning experience for both of us as they come along and discover all
these responsibilities they've taken on for themselves.
You know, it's not fun to buy insurance. It is fun to go out and buy a new car and later on the responsibility creeps in that, "Oh my god, now I can hit somebody harder" and
"...now I have more liabilities," or "...now I have a $60,000 investment to protect in case somebody steals it, etc." So now they have to go out and buy the insurance to protect
themselves because of what they've just gotten themselves into.
I think the webmasters are now getting into this situation. A lot of them are growing up financially. Their businesses are growing, they're learning what's going on, and
all at once, they're in this whole new world. They've got a bunch of new liabilities, some of which they don't understand yet, but they're starting to realize that this
is their cash cow... this is how they are making their living, and you don't do anything to screw up your income stream. I mean, you just have to protect your
income. It doesn't make any difference if you're making light bulbs or a Timex watch or something of that sort... you have to protect yourself from what you might
get into legally.
Webmasters have to understand that they have become a broadcaster, a publisher, and an entertainment producer all at once. They have taken on one of the highest risk categories
in the liability industry. They are just out there. They are a target from the start, and that includes you and me because we're both webmasters. We are
under any and all of the rules which apply to any and all of the industries that we've combined... broadcasting, publishing, and entertainment producer. Any TV show or movie
is heavily beset by people claiming all types of harassment, copyright infringement, patent infringement, etc., etc. It goes on down the line.
You have to remember, it costs someone almost nothing to sue you on a contingency basis. It costs him about $45 to file the court papers... that's all. And they roll the dice.
"Let's see if I can get some money. Let's see if they'll pay us $10,000 to go away." And then of course, the big thing now is that money is flowing on the internet, and it's
especially flowing on the adult side. And where the money flows, the lawyers are soon going to follow. I have seen on my desk already, lawsuits involving copyright
infringement, and some other types of things that have gone on in the industry... luckily from the people I have insured for this type of suit. We saw in just the last year,
posted on the bulletin boards, that one of the content providers provided some content to somebody, or it was taken from them. Someone else picked it up as a paysite,
distributed it to small webmasters, and said, "Here, use this in your banner ads" and "Here's some free content to use on your site" and these people were very, very
surprised to find out that they were getting sued. They were publishing content and they didn't have the slightest idea who owned it, where it originated, or anything
else other than someone said, "Here's some content, go publish it" ...which they did, and got into a lot of trouble. There's going to be a lot, lot more of this as time
goes on.
Q. Do you think that will be the angle that it comes in from... copyright infringement?
A.
That's the major source of headache in most of the motion picture and entertainment industry per se -- copyright infringement, patent infringement, everything else.
Anyone who's ever put anything on the airwaves normally gets besieged with people who say, "You know, back in 1972 I wrote a little song and it had those five bars in it
that you now have in your opening stanza on this movie." This is where they come from, and they want money to go away and leave you alone. I really don't think that's going to be the big
exposure that they run into. Those things are always going to be around, they're going to be a nuisance, they're going to be a headache, and they're going to cost webmasters money.
Where I really think that you're going to get into trouble is in the multimedia liability situation. Let's go back to that one for a moment. You know, the normal automobile
policy, liability policy, a normal general liability policy addresses bodily injury and property damage. That means you hurt somebody -- they're banged up and they start
bleeding -- that's bodily injury. Property damages -- you bang up the other guy's car, you run into his house, you do something... whatever you do, you bust up his property.
What we're doing here -- the insuring agreement says that we're going to insure you for a wrongful act. Now, what's a wrongful act? Is it a form of defamation of character...
things of this sort? Listen to this one... "harm to the character or feelings of any person" -- now you can see where this is going to come in. When some kid's mother walks
into the room and sees what he's got up on his screen, or lo and behold, someone with web tv broadcasts something that looks like it's inside a warning page, or maybe not,
into the living room where we have three generations of the family sitting there -- grandma, mom and pop, and the kids -- and they all see this thing come up -- you've
got harm to the character or feelings, and you've got some things that are going to happen out of this.
In addition to all this mental harm that they say you're causing them, you've got infringement of rights of privacy, public disclosure of private facts -- people could be
collecting email addresses and publishing them and all at once someone sues you over it. You can do all sorts of things. Outrage or outrageous conduct, now how does
that one sound? We've all been to a trade show and we've seen some of that, so there are going to be some things both on and off the net that are going to result in
some very, very nasty lawsuits. And they are already starting to materialize.
Q.
Well, some of these message boards can get heated up at times and things that are said back and forth certainly cross the line of defamation or slandering of character.
A.
Yes, they do, and people need to learn that there are times when you need to bite your tongue and go and take a day off before you respond to something.
Q.
Or put it in email or talk to them privately or go see them face to face, but when you put it out there so the world can see it,...
A.
Yes, it isn't just one on one anymore, it isn't like writing the guy a letter -- now you're publishing it -- now you're really making it a big deal. They used to say you should write
the guy a letter and then rip it up and throw it away... get it out of your system, but don't mail it.
These are all serious problems but I see invasion of privacy of some sort as the future cornerstone of the coming lawsuits.
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