I mean is there anyone that has been banned because of this? I think that I am fairly free from copyrighted materials, but what if someone post some copyrighted material in my forum? Will they ban my account then(if they discover it)?
The only thing I see in the TOS fairly close to copyright is illegal content, like MP3 downloading/sharing. Which you should NOT have google ads or not, because http://www.riaa.com/ will nail your ass.
From the TOS: If it's not yours, i guess it's illegal since you stole it (or someone else stole it but you are responsible for your site's content). So, technically, yeah you can get booted.
Does booted mean that they remove the account without a warning or that I get a mail in which they ask me nice to remove the content? I wonder if Yahoo is safer when it comes to this..
Have you read any of the 'I got banned' threads here? You just get booted, no warning. The TOS is your warning.
Maybe so but then they still don't have to contact you about it. They always protect their own ass first, then the customer's. Just like hosts who first pull the site, then ask questions (sometimes). Anyway, as long as you don't host it knowingly, you should be OK.
Ok, if I ask the author first if I can publish his work and do so, can I get banned anyway because google think it looks like copyrighted?
They ban before warning, they erase blogspot blogs without warning. Do they ban because of copyright violations? I doubt it somehow. They would have to be legally satisfied with proof in complaint by the copyright holder to do so.
Thanks, I was worried because one member in my forum globalicwarming posted a few climate graphs in a thread from a site with a free-download-but-not-publish-license notice in the bottom.
I doubt Google is out checking copyrights. The person complaing would likely have to prove that the information is thiers and also show that they notified the offender to stop. The example of the MP3 might be an exception because its such a hot issue.
A user here on DP can post copyrighted materials in a thread and then start a lawsuit against DP? Well that's scary.
Do you realize that each of your posts carries copyright? You can try posting your own material here and then suing DP for copyright infringement under your real name. Assuming you could pull off that fraud, you are going to run head first into the fact that had you demonstrated to DP that such an infringement is taking place and that the usage was outside the "Fair use" provisions of copyright law, DP would remove the content. With respect to your original post. To the extent stealing other people's content and poisting it on your website is deemed "illegal" content from the perspective of the TOS, yes, you would have your account summarily closed and money owed to you withheld. However, Google is unlikely to swoop down on someone and declare that they do not have the right to publish the material. Google needs to be absolutely certain this is the case. In the normal course of events, people are going to demand that you remove their copyrighted material from your website. When you ignore them, they will try to get your ISP to terminate your account because that is most likely a violation of the ISPs TOS. When you ISP ignores them and/or you just move elsewhere and repeat the process they may get a lawyer involved. Some may think about contacting Google and otherwise seeking compensation from your business.
why not have a clause somewhere in your forum TOS that says "don't post copyrighted materials in this forum unless you have permission" and a disclaimer "while we try everything to prevent copyright infringement, we cannot guarantee such. if u find any copyright violations let us know immediately". just a thought.