Somewhat OT: copyright question

[Jack]

Also IANAL. 

Short answer: Only if: 
a) you refuse to remove it when asked and/or,
b) knowingly encouraged it and/or,
c) knowingly allowed it to happen and/or,
d) are the one who posted it.

Longer answer:

I've been following events along this topic for years
and so have some knowledge/understanding of the
issues. It is almost impossible to prevent someone
from posting copyrighted material. The only way to
prevent it is to not allow anyone to post anything.
The legal precedents for posted copyrighted material
is that the host is required to remove the material
when he/she/they become aware of it. Save yourself
some headaches and add to your usage guidelines that
any copyrighted material posted by anyone other than
the owner of the copyright will be removed and that
repeat offenders will be banned. This serves to PYA
from knowingly encouraging copyright offences.
Secondly, if you know of any copyrighted material
posted on a forum you run, delete it. Don't wait for
the copyright owner to contact you. Generally, your IP
provider or possibly you and the IP provider will get
a takedown letter from some lawyer acting on behalf of
the copyright owner demanding you remove the content.
Also, the reprinting of small sections of copyright
material are generally protected from prosecution
under "fair use" rules. However, if you are
reproducing copyrighted material on a site that might
generate income you may fall outside that "fair use"
category. Whenever in doubt get written permission
from the copyright holder (not necesarily the same as
the author) BEFORE posting copyrighted material. If
the copyright holder cannot be found the safest
approach is to err on the side of caution and not post
it. Lastly, you usage policy should also state that
anything they post they are giving you explicit
copyright or free perpetual usage rights to such
material, so that they can't come back at some later
time and blackmail you for continued use of content.


Brian D.


--- Jonathan Hutchins <hutchins at tarcanfel.org> wrote:

> On Saturday 04 June 2005 12:50 pm, Josh Charles
> wrote:
> 
> > Does anyone know if you are running a forum and
> someone posts
> > copyrighted material if you can be held
> responsible for that content?
> 
> I believe current practice is that if notified, you
> must delete the materiel 
> if possible.  Other than that, you're not liable. 
> (IANL, consult one or go 
> to jail.)
> _______________________________________________
> Kclug mailing list
> Kclug at kclug.org
> http://kclug.org/mailman/listinfo/kclug
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com