A High Court judge has ruled that owners of blogging sites are not liable for user-generated content they have not checked or moderated.

The verdict was delivered after Labourhome.org owner Alex Hilton was sued by Johanna Kaschke. She was objecting to a blog post that appeared on the site written by user John Gray, accusing her of having had links with Baader-Meinhof, a German terrorist group.

The site’s regulator, Alex Hilton, claimed he didn’t vet articles on the site and so should be afforded the same rights as ISPs and search engines. Under EU law, such groups are exempted from liability for any content that they give access to, but do not edit or regulate themselves, as long as they take down unlawful content once they’re notified of it.

Mr Justice Stadlen agreed, noting that the exemption would be waved should the site owner moderate a comment or blog in any way, including changing spelling or grammar.

“Even the most minor interference can make you liable," said Struan Robertson, a legal director at law firm Pinsent Masons.

Robertson explained that the issue of responsibility of user comments has long troubled site owners. “What you see with the bigger sites is they have no interaction with what goes up at all. It removes their responsibility… makes them safer than, say, news sites that quality control.”

“It’s undoubtedly safer to ignore content… [but] by all means check it but then be prepared to accept responsibility for it.”

Kaschke, who was born in Germany but now lives in the UK, admitted she had been arrested by West German police on suspicion of involvement with the terrorist group, but had never been a member.

She claimed her arrest was down to police seeing her near a depot containing items for “terrorist activity… However her alleged ownership or use of the depot was never proven and neither was her alleged ownership of the said articles within.”

She added the country’s Government had even paid her compensation for false arrest.

Does that mean I can have all my edited posts unedited please.

There's a difference between a blog and a forum. There are rules associated with this forum which don't necessarily apply to blogs.

For the vast majority of forum members we are mindful of what we say so will not insult anyone

Speak for yourself you git. /joke

hes not joking you old git

hes not joking you old git

Yes I am plonker!

Does that mean I can have all my edited posts unedited please.