[thelist] Copyright question.....

[martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com]

Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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This is accurate in terms of pro-actively moderating forums (ie
each post much be explicitly approved) - you're putting yourself
under a high level of liability and duty of care.

However, even if you're not, you still have a (lower) duty of care
regarding the content you host. This was pretty clearly shown by
Godfrey -v- Demon Internet.

The usual advice given by lawyers these days (been through this
about half a dozen times in the last year) is to be able to respond
to complaint. If your competitor spots an infringement of her IP,
and can demonstrate it to a reasonable level, then you should
take down the content. Otherwise she will claim that you are negligent
in your duty of care once you're aware of infringment.

Cheers
Martin


To:   thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject:  Re: [thelist] Copywrite question.....

Just in terms of getting any just or unjust copyright infringement blame,
an
easy solution is to not moderate the forums. This will make you not liable
for
anything said in your forums, and place any blame due to the individual
users,
who are not likely to be prosecuted. If you moderate in any manner, then
you
are liable, but if you do not moderate then you are protected. This is why
it
is a hard decision to decide to moderate a forum, becuase IF you moderate,
THEN you must be willing to take responsibility for all things placed
there.



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