[ILUG] Does www.RateMyTeacher.IE meet criteria of Data Protection Act.

[Liam McDermott]

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 13:42:10 +0000, Eircom - Carroll
<codonoghue at eircom.net> wrote:
> I am interested in the views of this informed group on the web site
> www.RateMyTeacher.IE, specifically regarding the Data Protection Act.
> 
> This site names and rates teachers - ostensibly from comments from
> pupils and their parents - from 1 (poor) to 5 (good). It also has an
> additional COMMENTS field, used to offer such pearls as...
>  'Needs to learn to relax and stop cracking the same old "jokes".Good
>  because she gets the top students not because she inspires them.'.
> ...or...
>  'one of the most sad people i have ever met. Has a bad attitude
>  toward students and will live a long and lonley life.'
> 
> The site also features a "Wall of Shame" that names schools firewalling
> access to this site.
> 
> In my forties, I joined opened an account as an unidentifiable 14-year
> old using a friends PC and was immediately capable of sullying any
> teacher's, or schools reputation.
> 
> Can a commercial site offering such "facilities" against clearly
> identifiable individuals, by persons anonymous, be legal?
> 
> Yours, etc,
> C O'Donoghue.
> 
> --
> Irish Linux Users' Group
> http://www.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug/
> 
> 


its no different than me posting to a forum.

the liability rests with the poster, not the site.

although they may be obliged to remove liable comments