Well I'm about to go with an idea that sparked in my head about a website where gamers can go and sell things both physical and not physical and was wondering if I can get in trouble for this? I have been a big fan of markeedragon.com and noticed that he hasn't gotten in trouble one bit so basically would this be legal? Customers will be selling things like halo 3 lessons, level 80 world of warcraft accounts, currency for games, game accounts, gamer tags, game lessons, ebooks, guides, hacks, etc. Any help would be great thanks a lot!
I think a website called GamingLagoon does something similar to this, and they are a U.S. based company and have not run into any legal problems. I would think as long as you don't call your website halo3store.com or something similar, you will be fine. Just be sure to include somewhere on your website that you are in no way affiliated with the companies listed or discussed on your website.
Some of those things shouldn't get you in trouble, some may. For example, selling in-game items or currency could be a big no-no. Notice that I said "could be." The makers of World of Warcraft have sued a man in Florida that has been exchanging online currency for real money. As of yet, I don't believe that case has been settled or decided. I don't know of any similar case that has been, but it shows that it is in limbo. As far guides and ebooks, those could also be an issue. This would be a trademark issue. WoW stopped a man from selling his online guide on eBay because he had not paid the fee to be an authorized guide (therefore giving him the right to use their trademarks). However, it should also be said that they have not done anything about him selling them on his own website. So, that could just be a case of them using eBay's easy method of stopping possibly infringing content. They may not actually want to take him to court because they may believe that he has a fair chance of winning and they don't want that precedent set. In short, is it illegal? Not sure yet. Could it get you in trouble? It could land you in a lawsuit, but the outcome of such a suit is yet to be determined (unless somebody else has heard about those cases). Okay, I looked up that strategy guide lawsuuit again and it appears that WoW settled out of court after Public Citizen filed their own lawsuit against WoW. Since this was a settlement, it means that no precedent was set. Still up in the air, but looks good for the liitle guy on this one. Of course, he has a disclaimer stating it is not an official guide.
thanks for the advice I too did some research and as long as I am not affiliated with any of my customers than I would be fine basically I want to make a place where people can sell things but I'm in no way selling it with them or making a profit off what they sale so it's legal
If you are talking about safe-harbor portions of the DMCA, remeber they only apply if you register an agent with the US Copyright Office. The issue at hand for you would not be facilitating the sale of stolen goods, rather facilitating the theft of intellectual property. If these things were to be found illegal by a court, then since that is the intent of your site DMCA would not offer any protection (assuming these things were to be found illegal).