FAQ - Conflicts with Other Users

If you're having problems with another user, or believe that someone is violating the Terms of Service, you can make a report to the LiveJournal Abuse Team.

Before you make a report, there are some things that you should do first. The very first thing to do is to read through the rest of the frequently asked questions in this section of the FAQ [http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqcat=abuse]. These FAQs will give you an idea of the kind of things that the Abuse team regularly deals with, and will help you to resolve situations on your own without involving the Abuse team.

After you've read through that, look through the Terms of Service [http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos.bml] and see whether or not the situation is actually a violation of the Terms of Service.

If after you do that, you would still like to file a request and have the Abuse team make an investigation, you will need to have the following information:

* Your username
* The usernames of all other users involved
* URLs to SPECIFIC posts or comments where you feel that the ToS has been violated. The Abuse team WILL NOT investigate requests without this information. A link to a user's entire journal does not suffice as enough information to begin researching a situation.
* Any other proof that you would like to present.

Please note that the Abuse team will not consider comment notification e-mails, chat logs, system logs, or third party reports as evidence. Also note that the Abuse team doesn't accept requests on behalf of a third party. If your friend is being harassed, your friend will need to open a request under his or her own username.

Once you have gathered all the information you wish to present, visit http://www.livejournal.com/abuse/report.bml. This form will prompt you for all of the required information. If your issue is best handled by a FAQ, you will be directed to that FAQ, so that you get a response as quickly as possible. If your issue needs to be handled by a member of the Abuse team, your information will be forwarded to the Abuse queue, where it will be investigated in turn.

This is the only method for submitting an Abuse request; do not e-mail individual members of the Abuse team, and do not e-mail the account of the Abuse team community. Your report will not be read unless it is made using this form.

Due to the high volume of requests and the fact that the Abuse team is composed of volunteers, it will take time for your request to be answered. Some requests are handled within days. Some others, especially the ones that require large amounts of investigation, may take several weeks. Please don't e-mail the Abuse team again to ask about your request, as that will only add to the workload and delay your response further.

Your request will appear as a Support request. It will, however, only be visible to you and to members of the Abuse team.

You'll also get an e-mail with a URL containing an authorization code that will allow you to view and comment on your Abuse request. It's very important that you don't share that URL with anyone. Don't post it anywhere, don't show it to your friends, and don't encourage people to use that URL to add their comments to your request. If you share that URL, your request is no longer secure and confidential. The Abuse team will close requests that are no longer secure, and you'll have to open another one.

Additionally, please do not ask all of your friends to write in regarding a problem you are having. The Abuse team only needs one report to investigate a claim, and each report above and beyond the first report simply serves to slow the investigative process. The Abuse team's decision will not be swayed by a write-in campaign; decisions are made in accordance with the Terms of Service, and not popular opinion.

If you're interested in being considered for the Abuse team, you can see the application requirements in the User Information for the Abuse team community [http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=lj_abuse].

Harassment generally comes in two forms: harassing comments by another user posted in your own journal, and harassing posts about you in another user's journal. There are different steps to take for each type of harassment.

In either case, in order for the Abuse team to consider taking action, the harassment needs to be one-sided. The Abuse team will not mediate "flame wars" between two parties, and will not take action in cases where both users seem to be equally at fault.

The first thing to do is to review the FAQ "What kind of material is prohibited on LiveJournal?" [http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=107], which gives some guidelines about what LiveJournal doesn't allow.


HARASSING COMMENTS:
If someone is harassing you in comments to your own journal, the very first thing that you should do is ban them from commenting in your journal. See http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=20 for information on how to do this. If it's happening in a community, you'll need to contact the community maintainer to ban the user from commenting.

If the user then begins posting anonymously, you can either ban anonymous commenting from your journal [http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=23], or set it so that anonymous users can only post "screened" comments, which means that you'll have to approve those comments first [http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=134]. You should also enable Comment IP Logging for your journal [http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=66].

You can also make sensitive entries Friends-Only, which will block everyone from viewing them except the people on your Friends list. See http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqcat=security for more information on the various security features.

Because there are tools to block users from commenting in your journal, the Abuse team generally won't take action in cases such as these. If you do feel the need to report them, however, be sure that you include links to all of the comments in question, and do not delete the comments until after the Abuse team has reviewed your case.

HARASSING JOURNAL ENTRIES:
If a user is posting journal entries that are intended solely to harass you, first ask yourself whether a casual viewer of that journal would have enough information available to identify you. Then, make sure that it's not just an one-time incident.

If the abuse is chronic and you think that the user is violating the Terms of Service, then make a report with the Abuse team. Be sure to include links to all pertinent entries in the user's journal. The Abuse team won't investigate these cases unless reports contain specific links to investigate.

To learn how to contact the Abuse team, see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=105 .

If someone is harassing you anonymously, there are a few steps that you can take. You can either ban anonymous commenting from your journal completely [http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=23], or set it so that anonymous users can only post "screened" comments, which means that you'll have to approve those comments in order for them to be visible to other users [http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=134].

You should also enable Comment IP Logging for your journal [http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=66]. IP addresses aren't always helpful, but you'll need to have the user's IP address if you want to report the harassment to the user's Internet Service Provider.

Because there is no way to tie anonymous comments to LiveJournal usernames, the Abuse team will not act in cases of anonymous comment harassment. If you believe that you know who is harassing you, or would like to take action against whomever is harassing you, you will need to follow the steps given in http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=66 to track and report the anonymous user to his or her Internet provider.

When making a report, you will need to let the Internet Service Provider know that comments on LiveJournal are timestamped in Pacific Standard Time (GMT -8) or Pacific Daylight Savings Time if the journal user is using the S1 style system, and in GMT if the user is using the S2 style system.

We take pride in trying to provide users with as much freedom of speech as possible. However, there is certain material that LiveJournal does not permit. Most prohibited content is either banned due to United States or international treaty law, or is not allowed in an effort to keep the service usable for all members.

This is not an exhaustive list. For a full listing of the Terms of Service, see http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos.bml (particularly Section XVI: Member Conduct). The content of this FAQ is intended solely to illustrate some common examples of what are considered to be Terms of Service violations.

Comments, entries, journals and posts not permitted on LiveJournal include but are not limited to:

* Content created solely to harass another user
* Material that invades the privacy of another user by posting personal information
* Material that meets the United States legal definition of "indecent"
* Instructions on how to break the law
* Child pornography (explicit, nude, or erotic pictures taken of anyone under the age of 18, whether or not the model is over 18 at the time of posting)
* Material that infringes on the copyright or patent of an individual or corporation
* Unsolicited advertising of any service, goods, or forum (including LiveJournal communities)
* Content intended to interfere with another user's use of the site
* Content that is motivated by hatred towards an individual, race, ethnicity, or orientation
* Any other material that is a violation of applicable state, federal, or international law

If you find certain content objectionable, but it is not a violation of the Terms of Service, the Abuse team will not take action. For instance, a comment posted in the middle of a debate that contains opinions you personally find distasteful, but which is not harassing, indecent, or libelous, would not be a violation of the Terms of Service.

For more information on what to do if someone is harassing you, see the FAQ "Someone is harassing me. What steps should I take?" [http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=108].

To learn how to contact the Abuse team to report violations of the Terms of Service, see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=105 .

LiveJournal generally holds to the standards of "indecency" set forth by the United States Supreme Court decision handed down in the case "Miller vs. California".

The "Miller Test" for defining indecency sets forth three guidelines:

* The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;
* the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexually explicit conduct;
* a reasonable person must find the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

In order for material to be considered indecent, it must meet these guidelines (with the exception of material that is illegal under applicable law, such as sexual images of minors).

Also, LiveJournal has many users that are legally underage to view explict material. Because of this, in some cases, stricter guidelines can be imposed. In particular, posts to non-age-restricted communities, comments in others' journals, and default user picture icons should be kept free of explicit content.

If you frequently post material to your journal that can be considered of an "adult" nature, LiveJournal asks that you place a warning in your User Information ("bio") to that nature, warning that underage users should not view your journal. This is not mandatory, but can serve to protect both you and LiveJournal.

If you are the maintainer of a community in which users regularly post explicit images, you must monitor the membership of your community carefully to make sure that all of your members are of legal age to view such material. Again, this is to protect both you and LiveJournal.

To learn how to contact the Abuse team to report violations of the Terms of Service, see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=105 .

It is not, by itself, against the Terms of Service (http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos.bml) to add someone to your Friends list.

LiveJournal offers tools to assist you in dealing with a harassing user (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=108) and also offers security options (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqcat=security). Therefore, LiveJournal will not take action against users for adding someone to their Friends list.

If a user is violating the Terms of Service, please refer to http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=105 for instructions on contacting the Abuse Team.

You should immediately contact your local authorities if someone is stalking you. LiveJournal volunteers and administrators can't secure your real-world safety, and if you believe that you're in danger, your local authorities are the only ones who can help you.

Once you've reported the situation to your local authorities, LiveJournal will do whatever possible to cooperate with the investigation. We can't provide IP addresses for all users who use the service, but under some limited circumstances, we may be able to track future action. This information will only be gathered and released only upon court order.

If the stalking is taking the form of online harassment, see the FAQ "Someone is harassing me! What steps should I take?" [http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=108]

To learn how to contact the Abuse team to report violations of the Terms of Service, see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=105 .

If someone on LiveJournal is infringing upon your copyright, you may make a report through the Abuse team, which is the designated recipient of copyright complaints under the provisions set forth in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. 512(c). Complaints should follow the normal Abuse team contact procedures, which can be found at the end of this document.

Reports of infringement must include, by United States law, the following:

* An electronic signature (your full legal name) of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright holder;

* Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, in the form of the original URL of the image or work being infringed upon;

* Identification of the material that is infringing upon your copyright, with reasonable information for LiveJournal to locate the material (you must include the username of the person who is infringing upon your copyright, and links to the allegedly infringing material);

* Information reasonably sufficient for LiveJournal to contact you (a valid email address);

* A statement that you in good faith believe that the material is not authorized for use in such a manner;

* And finally, a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information given is accurate and you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright holder, in the following format:
 
I [your full legal name] swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information I have given is accurate and I am authorized to act on behalf of the copyright holder.


Failure to include any of the above information, or failure to provide enough information for LiveJournal volunteers to identify the violation, will seriously delay if not prevent your request being handled.

If you cannot make the above claims, your complaint is most likely not valid, and the Abuse team will not handle it. In particular, you do not hold the copyright to icons or photographs of celebrities or any icon made out of other copyrighted artwork, unless you are the copyright holder of the source image. Even if you have altered the image, the copyright still belongs to the original copyright holder, and you cannot file a notification.

Once you have filed this notification with LiveJournal, the person who is allegedly infringing upon your copyright has an opportunity to file a counter-notification disputing your right to claim copyright on the material.

To learn how to contact the Abuse team to file a report of infringement, see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=105. By following the instructions in that FAQ, you will be prompted to provide all of that information at the time of making a complaint.

Account suspensions are used by the Abuse team as a last resort. In most cases, the Abuse team only suspends journals when we cannot work with the user to resolve a violation of the Terms of Service. (Immediate suspensions are done for certain reasons, including but not limited to Denial of Service attacks, account breakins, and journals created solely to abuse.)

If your journal has been suspended, you should check your email to see if you've received a warning or an explanation. If you haven't, or if you have questions, send an email to abuse@livejournal.com from the email account that you have validated for your LiveJournal. Be sure to include your username. The Abuse team will respond as quickly as possible, though in some cases it may be several days. Please do not open up multiple requests, as this will only serve to delay the process.

In some cases, suspended journals will not be reinstated. These cases include but are not limited to journals created solely for abuse, journals belonging to users with an extensive history of abuse, journals created to circumvent directives of the Abuse team, and journals belonging to users under the age of 13 [see http://www.livejournal.com/legal/coppa.bml for more details on the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act].