Legal Question in Technology Law in California
Untraditional Adult Website & Copyright Issues
I run an adult discussion forum where users post adult material
I as the owner only maintain the server and keep order, I do not post any content; rather the users do all of the posting on the forum.
I've recently been threatened with legal action regarding a posting by one of the members on the disucssion forum. The person contacted me via ICQ and said that a gallery posted depicted a pictures which he owned the copyright to.
Once he gave me sufficient information I promptly removed the link and explained my situation.
He says that he will continue to seek legal action despite me declaring that upon my knowledge of any problem where a user has posted innapropriate material, I will remove it.
Do I really have anything to worry about?
Thanks
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Untraditional Adult Website & Copyright Issues
If you are an Internet service provider or an Internet access provider, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act provides you with limited protection from infringement claims if you have established reasonable procedures to protect intellectual property distributed through your system. Usually this amounts to giving notice, investigation and removal of infringing material, or "notice and take-down" as it is called.
Your operation may or may not fall into the ISP or IAP category, however.
I suggest you go to your local law library (ask the clerk at the court house where it is, if you can't find a listing in some directory) and read portions of Chapter 5 of "Law of the Internet" by Delta and Matsuura. This treatise covers the fast-developing area of the law in a style that is reasonably easy for a non-lawyer who knows the lingo of the Web to follow and at least get an impression of what is expected of site hosts.
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