Liability for members posting copyrighted material?

[~kev~]

Well, I knew that one day this would happen, and today was the day. I received a copyright infringement claim from my hosting provider.

A member copied a page from someones website and posted it in my forum. The owner of the material found out and contacted my hosting company. (I use registrar block to stop people from getting my contact information.)

The hosting company sent me an email about the complaint. I removed the content, put the owners information in place of the post and gave the member a 5 day ban. The content was removed with about 5 - 10 minutes after I received the email.

The questions is, how liable is the owner of a forum for the conduct of the members?

That question is kinda board, because you will have forum owners that will not remove the copyrighted content. For the sake of discussion, lets say that the forum owner removes the copyrighted content as soon as he / she is notified. Not a few days later, not a week later, and not a month later.

If the forum owner takes a proactive approach to prevent the posting of and removal of copyrighted material that members post, how much is he / she liable?

[Steve Machol]

You really should talk to a lawyer for specific advice but I believe that if you promptly take care of these issues as soon as you are notified then you should be okay.

[~kev~]

Thank you for the reply. I called a business attorney, but he said he would have to research this and it would cost $200 an hour. :(

I wonder who the actual liability would fall on, the person that posted the material, or the owner of the site?

As an example, all of these people that share music - the Recording industry of america does not go after the ISP, they go after the end user that actually shares the music.

:cool:

[Floris]

That's a question your attorney can answer within half an hour - usually the first session (introduction) is free and gives you enough info to move forward with.

You should (from what I gather) not be liable, but you can receive a court order to comply. Nothing wrong with that. But if the content on your site is breaking your forum rules, you could just comply with the request.

[MRGTB]

You don't need to bother with a lawyer, you removed the content and that's that, end of story. You did the right thing and nobody would sue another site for copyright infringement right away (too costly). Unless of course you refused to remove it.

But my guess is, your server would ban your account before it would even get to that stange anyway, if you refused to remove it. So you have little choice either way. Unless you own the site and the server hosting company yourself.

Personally, I would have banned that member out-right, and posted why he was banned too. To send a strong message to other members, not to think about doing the same thing. Remember, it's your skin on the line, not theres! I would have made an example of him, on not what to do!

[Dilly]

Personally, I would have banned that member out-right, and posted why he was banned too. To send a strong message to other members, not to think about doing the same thing. Remember, it's your skin on the line, not theres! I would have made an example of him, on not what to do!
Wow. Heavy handed much?

[MRGTB]

Not really a case of being heavy handed. More a case of having to set an example really. Which I think you have to do when your sites host is contacted that way. It could have quite easily have ended with his host banning his account because of that member.

So you have to take a stronger stance in that instance than normal, to try and avoid it happeneing again.

[Nick]

Is it not reasonable to include in your TOS that members are responsible for all content they post, including copyrighted material and that the owner cannot be responsible?

Something like:

All members are responsible for the content they post, and the site owners cannot be held liable for any misleading, unlawful, copyrighted, or otherwise inappropriate material displayed on this site. However, upon an administrator's witness of said content, it will be removed promptly. If you believe a post should be removed, please use the report post feature.

If you are the owner of copyrighted material that has been unlawfully posted on this site, please contact us identifying the post and the original source and we will remove it promptly.Is that "allowed"?

[Dilly]

Not really a case of being heavy handed. More a case of having to set an example really. Which I think you have to do when your sites host is contacted that way. It could have quite easily have ended with his host banning his account because of that member.

So you have to take a stronger stance in that instance than normal, to try and avoid it happeneing again.
Sure it is.

If it was an inadvertent breach of copyright, which 99% would be, and the user did not complain about the post being deleted, then to even suspend them would be overkill in my opinion.

The only reason the host was contacted was because the complaintant couldn't find contact details for the webmaster. There was no shutdown order requested.

Mountains out of molehills.

[1996 328ti]

Without knowing what was actually copied, it's difficult to know if it was even a violation.
What might be considered 'fair use' might be an out and out violation to others.

[findingjesus]

Well, I knew that one day this would happen, and today was the day. I received a copyright infringement claim from my hosting provider.

A member copied a page from someones website and posted it in my forum. The owner of the material found out and contacted my hosting company. (I use registrar block to stop people from getting my contact information.)

The hosting company sent me an email about the complaint. I removed the content, put the owners information in place of the post and gave the member a 5 day ban. The content was removed with about 5 - 10 minutes after I received the email.

The questions is, how liable is the owner of a forum for the conduct of the members?

That question is kinda board, because you will have forum owners that will not remove the copyrighted content. For the sake of discussion, lets say that the forum owner removes the copyrighted content as soon as he / she is notified. Not a few days later, not a week later, and not a month later.

If the forum owner takes a proactive approach to prevent the posting of and removal of copyrighted material that members post, how much is he / she liable?


Hey I am not a expert on this, but did went through a class on something on this.

First question,

what is the copyrighted Material if it a Movie, Music, or Live broadcast. regardless of it from a member, if caught then the person who rights was Violated can press charges and have your site Shut-down. and you could be fined 10,000 to 100,000 dollars or Imprisoned for five yrs.
Under FBI Anti-copying Laws.

if it photo, or newspapers, same listed above can happen.

However, you could have way to esc this by settling with the person if a complaint or lawsuit happens. by surrendering the user information.

from your host provider was their a service that was being copied if so then i would contact them, and see if this can be settled.

yes Owner is relaible.

here a example best way to describe it.

like VB is copyrighted and protected,

and if I just copy tis thread, then their no infridgment, but

if I recreate VB, and declare that I built and remove serial and license Numbers, and sell it cheaper then that be copyright infridgement.

and well thanks get out of hand in a hurry.

basically if a complaint been sent to you, i would do everything to protect yourself, cause they can get alot of money plus your site.

hopefully i help some.
:cool: No worries VB I am not plotting this I am not that stupid.

if

[Chieftain]

I have had 2 copyright infringement threats over the past 2 1/2 years against my site, and neither one led to squat.

First off, if you charge admission or earn any kind of income from your site, this post does not apply to you. Using someone else's work to make money is the issue at the heart of copyright law and is what usually trips most sites up.

If your site is free public access, and you don't charge admission or membership fees of any kind, your site is in a different category all together and into a different chapter of Copyright Law pertaining to "Fair Use", and it's all gray areas...

There are some very fine legal points here, and by all means an attorney is the best person to give you serious legal advice, but what someone claims in a copyright, and what they can prove in court are often two very different things.

Read the copyright of your local newspaper. If it's anything like my hometown paper, you are in direct violation of their copyright the moment you put the second old copy of their paper in your recycle bin; because they tell you in writing that you are only entitled to have one copy in your possession at any time.

Hard to prove in court?? Of course.

Easy to beat your server provider over the head with?? You betcha!! Newspapers see the internet as a direct challenge to them, and unfair competition.

Just sayin...

:cool: