Forums under Legal Attack

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

At least now it is crystal clear that full moderation control over all new content is necessary. If new content is not checked by staff, it can contain copyrighted material, which can result in such law suits.

Currently vbulletin does not allow us to to review all new content and mark it checked.

Doesn't the moderation queue do exactly that?

[Alfa1]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

Doesn't the moderation queue do exactly that?

Try that on a big board. That simply doesnt work. Not only is it extremely user unfriendly, limits forum activity, its also unmanageable and results in a mass of replies that would never have been posted, had the members seen the other replies in the moderation queue.

Moderators should be able to review all content effectively as a group. There is a hack that made Kirk Y for AV forums to resolve this for forum content.

There should be default functions in vb to streamline moderation across all content types, so that is becomes feasible to prevent problematic or illegal content from being posted.

[Ramsesx]

Originally Posted by borbole

I don''t think this will have any influence for forum owners hosted in Europe. We have other laws about suing. It is not like in the States where everyone sues everyone else for almost anything.

In Germany you even can get sued if your members quote a sentence from artists or writers, that's horrible. Normally it's no more possible to run a forum without the fear to get sued for every bs. Just had to search and remove 10 quotes from my forum.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Please do not turn this thread into a discussion on vBulletin features. The Community Lounge is not the place for that. If needed please use 1 of the appropriate forums for that.

Originally Posted by BigJohnny

this guy isn't notifying anyone. he simply finds it and sues from what I read here.

What he probably does is called "sewer service" where he gets a document server to fill out and affidavit stating that you were served the complaint/subpoena. You then never get the paper work and the trial date happens and you don't show up and lose by default. He can then get the sheriff to garnish your wages and take whatever property and money you have in the bank.

The easy way to fight this is as soon as you've found out there is a judgment against you, go to court and file a motion to vacate pending a new trial because you were never served the papers. The judgement is then thrown out and a new court date set.

At this point get a lawyer and file for discovery to see exactly what he has against you. Usually and since these people are scam artists, they won't have the needed paperwork to prove injury and won't have any standing in the court.

Whereas it pertains to copyrights, under the DMCRA, he has to show he's given you written communication to cease and desist and you refused. This proof is usually a certified letter postmarked by the post office.

Whatever you do, once you find out there is litigation against you do not ignore it! These scammers are depending on your to not show up to court and present you defense. But you can beat these guys and even counter sue them for misuse of the court if push comes to shove.

[James T Brock]

Load of bull. Where did the $75,000 number come from?

If this were true it would mean that person could go around the internet and copy/paste the articles he owns everywhere under a proxy and then in 3 months go and sue all of those people and auto-win. He'd be a billionaire.

[Brandon Sheley]

Originally Posted by TNCclubman

Everyone should have a notice that posts on your forum belong to the post author, not your forum.

Like how youtube removes copyrighted material when its notified.

all content on our forum is owned by the forum
the users sign a tos when they sign up
also in our rules it says not to copy and past articles

I'm still not losing any sleep over it :up:

[Raeven]

Originally Posted by Ramsesx

In Germany you even can get sued if your members quote a sentence from artists or writers, that's horrible. Normally it's no more possible to run a forum without the fear to get sued for every bs. Just had to search and remove 10 quotes from my forum.

As far as I know recent lawsuits here in Germany, came out with the result to give us forum owners more rights, but requers still a good lawyer to defend ....

Well, we can still use offshore hosting (something not only interesting for criminals anymore ...)

[midnz]

Copyright troll Righthaven is facing its second lawsuit from digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing a former federal prosecutor ..... more

[BirdOPrey5]

Thanks...

This article may be of interest to forum owners:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...aven-loophole/

They claim there is a form to be filled out and a $105 fee that basically makes you immune to these lawsuits.