Hi guys, I am talking about a large general talk forum which is not directly supporting any illegal materials. If some users have posted rapidshare links to movies or software in some part of the forum. Or if someone has linked a copyrighted image uploaded to imageshack etc.. Will it make any legal problems? I mean the server host nothing and warez linked posts are like 1% or less than normal posts. If some legal body asked to remove certain post then we can respond quickly and remove them. But if there are large number of posts like that then can i ask him/her to show me the posts so i will remove? Or i have to find all the posts somehow and remove them? But can they sue without even telling?
Yes, they can sue without contacting you first - although most don't (but it only takes the right one). While you would likely have some protection if your site is not about warez and you are not posting the links, the more your site is known for providing these types of links, the greater your risk. It would be in your best interest to discourage these types of links and make attempts to keep your forum free of them.
Google is a search engine that indexes everything. They have a lot of protection, but they have also been sued many times. They just lost a case for copyright images. The difference is that google has billions of dollars and a bunch of attorneys on retainer and can afford and are willing to get into a legal battle. Most people aren't going to want to spend tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, in a legal battle about who is right.