Abrupt, I don't see how that section of the Terms of Service is relevant, nor do I agree with your analysis of California law. Each post is clearly marked with the username of its author. There is no impersonation going on, and since you are not using a real name (nor business name) I don't believe you'd be able to argue that any meaningful "damages" (in either sense of the word) have occurred. Your participation here is voluntary and as a private business our only obligation is to run the forums within applicable law, and to my best knowledge, that's exactly what we're doing. You are welcome to disagree (I assume you will) but I really don't see these more-or-less playful modifications as such an egregious violation.
Thank you for the reply and you are correct to assume that I would disagree as I can be about as stubborn a person as possible.
You may be unclear about the issue I have with the post. I wouldn't even care so much if someone made a quote and tried to attribute it to me, but the issue here is the person is using your forum features to have it appear to be a genuine quote from me. For instance, even in this instance where an * is designated (unlike previous times where he has left out the asterisk) is it clear to readers that the resulting post is falsified?
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add it to ['my']* long list of unfounded assertions and fabrications and downright lies.
*-corrected for grammar aand proper attribution of adjectives
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The quoted text highlighted that reads "Quote from: Abrupt on August 31, 2012, 11:56:22 pm" is a forgery and is in essence an impersonation of me. Granted it is a handle and not actually tied directly to my person (I often forget that as I maintain my honor and integrity and conform to such standards regardless of the medium or anonymity inherent from such methods), but since one of the tenants of this site is honesty can you absolutely guarantee me that there will be no ramifications of my integrity ever being injured from someone reading that as it appears where it claims to be me admitting that I am a liar? If I posted here claiming that I often lied when filling out surveys and entering in personal information would that not make me subject to be banned from FC? Can you guarantee that other administrators would not read that and assuming it was actually me having had previously posted the quoted material and thus making me subject for suspicion or even removal? What about my potential usage of the provided banner for garnering referrals with a reference to a moniker of a person that appears to be admitting to being a liar?
Regarding the legality of the issue, you have said yourself that you are not a lawyer, and neither am I (but I have filed many successful legal proceedings on my own and am not daunted by the language). With the insanity of liberal legislation it would behoove you to protect yourself and your company against such culpable involvement that stems from the use of your forum features/software to commit forgeries/impersonations. That you are aware it is a forgery and yet let it stand in such a state is an indefensible position you should never allow yourself to be in. Many other forums allow the use of handles and quote highlighting features and they have strict stipulations about altering the quoted material (if you just use your own quotes without the highlight features and format they don't have such issue with it). They consider such a violation to be a ban-able offense and there must be a reason for it.
I am ever an honest person and am not one to tolerate being impugned. That he is using your forums quote and highlight features to do this is where I have issue. If you still think such blatant use of your web features to perpetrate such a wrongful act is fine, then perhaps you can be so kind as to put me in contact with Mr. Derheim and we can find his viewpoints on the issue. With all that being said, I do understand that the forums are something provided for us and that you even allocate benefits from our participation in them and so I don't want to sound unappreciative of such benevolence -- it is just that my honor and dignity is greater than any of that.