Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: Bulletin Board Administrator Content Liability

While section 230 of the Telecommunications Act provides the online service provider some shelter from liability arising from users' actions, the service provider can still get in hot water for users' intellectual property violations. The safe harbor does not provide immunity for the service provider's own actions, either.

An online service provider can minimize copyright liability by registering an agent with the U.S. Copyright Office and putting specific notices on the service provider's web site. See http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/ for more details.

I think that anyone who runs a web site, a bulletin board or an IRC server should have a TOS, especially if they also provide places where visitors can post comments. And in most cases, I would recommend filing both a registration of the copyright in the web site and notice regarding the registered agent for copyright infringement notifications.