People, you risk legal action against your site for these 2 reasons

Discussion in 'Legal Issues' started by Coach Jeff, Dec 20, 2009.

  1. #1
    This is meant to educate people around here, because I'm so sick of people posting sites for sale that put potential buyers at risk for legal action.

    1. You CANNOT use a trademark in a domain name without the very good possibility of facing legal action from the trademark owner. I don't care who else is doing it, or what justification you think you have for it. Do so at your own risk.

    2. You CANNOT steal images from other sites to use on your sites! I was just told by someone trying to sell a site that if an image isn't watermarked it falls under GNU and is free to use. That is 100% wrong. If you didn't take the photo or create the image yourself, and if you do not have permission from the creator of the image/photo to use it, then you put yourself at risk for facing legal action!

    I can't even count the number of sites for sale around here that are at risk for legal action against their owners.

    Buyers, you need to educate yourself and ask the right questions, like "where did you get the images?". You also need to stay away from any sites/domains that have someone else's trademark in the domain.
     
    Coach Jeff, Dec 20, 2009 IP
    Law-Dude likes this.
  2. keithjameslock

    keithjameslock Peon

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    #2
    To my understanding, unless you are a lawyer, you cannot offer legal advice. :)
     
    keithjameslock, Dec 20, 2009 IP
  3. Law-Dude

    Law-Dude Active Member

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    #3
    Your understanding is incorrect. Noting that as of the writing of this reply, your profile indicates that you reside in Ontario, Canada, I should inform you that there exists a licensed paralegal profession in the Province of Ontario, members of which are allowed to offer legal advice and make submissions to the court in all kinds of matters, including summary conviction charges before the Ontario Court of Justice, matters before the Small Claims Division of the Superior Court of Justice, provincial offences matters, etc. These people are not lawyers, but they can most certainly give legal advice.

    Also, unlicensed individuals may perform the same services pro bono as a licensed paralegal could if they are doing so for a friend, neighbour, or relative in your province.

    Also, law students, who are neither lawyers nor paralegals, have similar powers to the abovementioned individuals in your province.

    Also, simply discussing opinions of how the law operates in a general sense without discussing an individual's specific situation often falls under the protection of the author's country's particular protections of freedom of expression and association and is not considered to be the practice of law for regulatory purposes. If that were not the case, you could not even say "shoplifting is illegal" without being convicted of providing legal services without a licence.
     
    Law-Dude, Dec 20, 2009 IP
  4. Jasonb

    Jasonb Well-Known Member

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    #4
    Awesome posts, thing is.. the ammount of people using stolen images these days is crazy.
     
    Jasonb, Dec 20, 2009 IP
  5. WebPulse

    WebPulse Active Member

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    #5
    I would not call it you can get legal action but you will get an email so that you remove the image. I try to remove the images within 24 hours after I get the email. Having over 40 websites, I've only got two emails to remove pics and have done it in a timely manner and even got thanks from the image owners that I removed the images.

    just my two cents.
     
    WebPulse, Dec 20, 2009 IP