I think that as a leader in online forums, IPB needs to help protect it's customers from potential copyright infringements created by their members.

All operators of forums MUST register an agent with the copyright office http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/ to gain full protection under the DMCA.

IBP can help with this by creating a setting where owners can link to their copyright agent paperwork on http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/ and provide a contact information page for those who own copyrighted material and want to contact you to have it removed.

Or, on the bottom of the forums, there could be a link that says "This site is DMCA complaint" and it links to http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/ so that your information can be looked up.

And perhaps a nag warning box on the admin dashboard letting the admin know that they need to register. Once the admin provides their information, the nag box goes away.

I know from experience that you need to register an agent. Trust me.... Spend $100 to register or spend tens of thousands on lawyers.

This is not IPS's responsibility at all, it is purely on the Site Operator. Your also assuming that all of their customers are present in the United States or have laws and regulations that apply there where they host.

I have re-read my post and no where in there did I say it was their responsibility.

I am saying that a company that cares about its customers will help educate and protect them. It may also have in impact on the profits of IPB as people may not get into or stay running a forum for fear of lawsuits.

And, people outside of the United States are being sued by U.S. lawyers for copyright infringement. There is a Canadian forum being sued by a U.S. Law firm along with a British company.

Spend $100 to register or spend tens of thousands on lawyers.

Or be a good administrator and form a good moderating team and remove copyrighted content before it becomes a problem.

"This site is DMCA complaint".

"Compliant" might be a better word... ;)

Or be a good administrator and form a good moderating team and remove copyrighted content before it becomes a problem.

And if the lawyers discover it before your mod team does, you can still be sued.

I'm confused why people are fighting an idea that would help prevent lawsuits?

Oh, wait, I have those types of people on my forum..... along with the spelling police.

You're usually fine if you actually spend the time to make a disclaimer that says you are not responsible for the content posted on your forum. Most companies aren't going to rip you to shreds over a copyright infringement provided you actually remove it in a timely manner and don't just blow it off.

You could just skin a link in really quickly, and honestly I've never head of this thing before, nor have I seen any sites doing it.

You're usually fine if you actually spend the time to make a disclaimer that says you are not responsible for the content posted on your forum. Most companies aren't going to rip you to shreds over a copyright infringement provided you actually remove it in a timely manner and don't just blow it off.

You could just skin a link in really quickly, and honestly I've never head of this thing before, nor have I seen any sites doing it.

More popular on blogs. A good 6 months ago lots of blogs were being sued for stealing blog content that was on a public RSS feed :o

Sounded like a setup to me.

Probably was a setup. There was a newspaper doing that awhile ago.

Bt anyways, I don't really worry about DMCA's on my site. I will either find it before I get a notice, or I will just comply with the DMCA. Most companies are somewhat forgiving for things like that, especially if it was a member doing it, and you weren't intentionally trying to cause problems.

interesting. . .

Probably was a setup. There was a newspaper doing that awhile ago.

Bt anyways, I don't really worry about DMCA's on my site. I will either find it before I get a notice, or I will just comply with the DMCA. Most companies are somewhat forgiving for things like that, especially if it was a member doing it, and you weren't intentionally trying to cause problems.

emsonline is one of the victims of that very newspaper.

emsonline, the problem is that many of IPS customers aren't in the United States, and therefore the DMCA does not apply to them - hence being harassed to register with the US Copyright Office isn't going to sit well with them. You'd probably be better off supporting a request like which is more applicable to everyone but still supports the goal you want - someone to stick your legal information where it can be easily accessed.

emsonline is one of the victims of that very newspaper.

Ah. That makes sense then.

Anyways, are you just trying to make it have a link on the bottom of the page, or does it have to be a full fledged page? If it has to be a page, theres a way to do it with DawPi's Pages mod, where you can just hide the pages tab, and manually skin in a tab that links to the page you need.

Disclaimers will not protect you from lawsuits.

Being out of the U.S. will not protect you from lawsuits. They are actively pursuing lawsuits in Canada and the U.K.

...I will just comply with the DMCA...

This kinda goes to my point that in order to gain protection through the DMCA, sites needs to have a registered agent. Otherwise if content is posted, they don't have to provide a take-down notice, they can just sue.

Given that IPB is global, perhaps a simple Q & A asking if they are from the U.S. and a simple advisory box that suggests the user register with the copyright office with instructions how. The user can then dismiss the box preventing it from showing up again.

Disclaimers will not protect you from lawsuits.

Being out of the U.S. will not protect you from lawsuits. They are actively pursuing lawsuits in Canada and the U.K.

All of those lawsuits would simply be thrown out. All it takes is a simple registered letter to the court declaring no jurisdiction and the US court will throw it out. Otherwise, they have to bring the suit in the country of the defendant, and any court not in the US would simply laugh Righthaven and their ilk off the benches.

This kinda goes to my point that in order to gain protection through the DMCA, sites needs to have a registered agent. Otherwise if content is posted, they don't have to provide a take-down notice, they can just sue.

Unless they're not in the US.

MORE questions during install? Ugh. Pass, thanks.

I don't think we are going to be adding anything to the software for this purpose. It is up to the administrator of each site to comply with any relevant and necessary laws in the country they live. We try to provide enough tools to help you get the job done, but we are not a legal firm and generally stay away from legal requirements that can be addressed outside of the software. COPPA is an exception because it must be handled as part of the registration process, but in this case there is absolutely nothing stopping you from registering with any associated copyright or similar offices on your own.

Most companies aren't going to rip you to shreds over a copyright infringement provided you actually remove it in a timely manner and don't just blow it off.

Apparently this group of lawyers hasn't got that message. They acquire copyright to the material and then sue the offender without asking that it be taken down. That's their business model.
MRighthaven lawsuits

Apparently this group of lawyers hasn't got that message. They acquire copyright to the material and then sue the offender without asking that it be taken down. That's their business model.

[url="http://www.righthavenlawsuits.com/"]MRighthaven lawsuits[/url]

I know, I've know about it ;)