Hi, We run an internet support group forum and some of the members posts are being copied onto other forum sites and being used to try and antagonise the members who wrote them. This is purely being done out of internet trolling etc. I am wondering if there is a disclaimer such as ""postings on this site may not be reproduced, copied or quoted without the permission of the author" that we can actually put on the site and that there is some legal recourse to if we need it. What we are trying to achieve here is to deter people from copying the posts, if there is copying done then we can contact the sites they have been quoted onto and they are oblidged to remove them (they are being uncooperative to date) and if we need to then take a legal route if there are references to the copied posts that are slanderous, nasty or vindictive. We could take the approach to lock down the forum and make it so you have to be a member to view the whole forum but we don't want to do that because potential new members want to browse around before signing up. At the same time though we want to be able to protect our members as much as we can from this type of thing happening - it is making some of them reluctant to post on the forum now. Thanks for any help and advice in advance!
I understand that people may not abide by it. Would this give us a higher standing and a legal stading in getting the "copied" posts removed from other sites though?
if the posts were originally made on your site then you can go to the host of the site stealing your content and raise hell. The host will not be happy with the thieving site and threaten it or pull it.
It couldn't hurt, but I doubt it would help too much. If the content originated on your site, it is inherently yours, so you can file a complaint regardless. Your best bet would be to go after the host, if they don't comply you are probably screwed. While you could raise actually legal issues with it, it would cost far too much and take a lot of time.
having a disclaimer will decrease the amount of content stealing a little bit. A disclaimer at least shows visitors that you are aware of the legalities of copyright infringement and might scare some people off. It might not fix all of your problems but it might be worth it in the long run.
I'd lock down the forum and post a sticky to the members telling them why. They will understand and appreciate it. You can't stop people from copying and pasting no matter how illegal it may be and the other forum moderators won't care..apparently that's the kind of forum they run.
I think this is likely your best course of action. It's not ideal, of course, but legal methods of doing it will likely take too much time and money.
I belong to a private writing forum, and some members have been copying user posts and using them to "out" certain writers to journalists. Journalists have been using the copied posts to write stories about the company that owns the forum. All I can suggest is telling users to be careful what they post, as other members could use anything against them (age, income level, gender, etc.). In the forum I mentioned, someone tried to blackmail another member b/c she found out about the other member's arrest history (and the person was wrongfully arrested - she has the records and the lawsuit money to prove it).
Not necessarily. Generally he would have to pay a lawyer a couple hundred to issue a proper DMCA violation notice. Then the lawyer would file suit and offer a settlement for several thousand dollars (this might be about 1-2K upfront or a 40% of the take type deal). If still not compliant it would cost several thousands to tens thousands of dollars to pursue litigation in court, although that can be applied to the loser if it's an open and shut case. Just my experience from seeing other similar episodes. I once saw somebody scared into settling for about 10K because they got a notice from a lawyer, and it was on alot shakier grounds than this. Also, it appears the OP as a claim to defamation and publishing private facts as well. Those are two serious issues to consider.
Change "antagonise" to "critique" and you have fair use, right? In my eyes this is more of a fair use / Internet hate debate than anything to do with copyright. After all, the *members* hold the rights to their posts, and the forum owner can't send a DMCA without acting on behalf of them, which requires more signatures. If we figure the admin is using a standard forum TOS they have the right to host the member's posts in their database, but not act on behalf of them. Inline with what Dulce7 was saying, defamation seems much more likely here, but it will have to be pursued by the members themselves, not the site. I know this topic is a bit old, but I wanted to shed some new light on it in case it was still an issue.