Running a warez forum

If I want to run a warez forum, on a host that allows warez, am I perfectly legal? I mean, I can upload warez and stuff as long as the host allows it, and nobody is going to fine me or anything? I'm fine?

 

i think it's criminal.

"The United States No Electronic Theft Act (NET Act), a federal law passed in 1997, provides for criminal prosecution of individuals who engage in copyright infringement, even when there is no monetary profit or commercial benefit from the infringement. Maximum penalties can be five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. The NET Act also raised statutory damages by 50%."

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NET_Act

This is legal information, not legal advice. If you need legal advice, please contact a lawyer.

 

best way is not to host the files on your server.. just host them elsewhere.. but if u too scared of legal action.. then dont do warez at all

 

I think nobody would really care unless your site is as popular as mininova or katz cd or pirate bay.

 

Tons of warez forums and sites are running fine, its should be fine, untill and unless some sycho catches you and take you for a ride, and sue you. Better go for offshore hostings.

 

Are the websites like katz legal?
If not so, how they can stay online ?

 

May be cause nobody have shown dedication to sue them till now.
and may be cause they are hosted in such countries where there is no strict rules against these such illegal sites.

 

Thanks for your answer.

 

Thanks everybody for comments, I'm not particularly interested in running a warez forum, I've just been seeing a few warez forums for sale within my budget and wondered if there would be legal complications. And there is. But I'll probably buy one anyway.

Thanks again.

 

Host on a server in Russia.

 

Hosting warez in your server is very difficult. You'll have many legal problems. You can open a warez forum but only by warez linking. That means that the files won't be hosted in your servers. You only need a good offshore host of warez linking forums.

Thanks
Arlind

 

I think you better find a server in HongKong. Most of the warez sites host there.

 

Hosting company might not give a crap, but creator of software, recording label of songs, and others might sue your ass.

 

You have to know your local laws. If you're USA...don't bother doing it. Don't worry about what others do...worry about yourself and how running a warez forums might effect you. In Australia I have a feeling they are going to give you a problem legally. From my experience AU seems to run a tight internet and not allow illegal activity.

And it doesn't matter where you host if you live in a country where you can be arrested or liable for civil damages. Having a warez friendly host only prevents your site from going down not you from going down.

 

do u live in usa? if so then its illegal

Your best is make sure there is no way they can contact you. As long as they can not contact you, you are safe

 

* it's illegal in USA
* Linking is legal in Uk like amsterdam, netherlands, germany etc...
* hosting is legal in Russia, CHina and Hong Kong etc...

however recently Hong Kong is shutting down many illegal servers. So you can get yrself hosting in Russia (excellent servers, but language problem), China (everything goes excellent, even price also high)...

 

Yes, there may be a number of hosts who will allow the hosting of a Warez site. This does not make the website legal.

As long as you host the files on your server you will open yourself to criminal and civil prosecution as you will be seen as distributing the files.

By merely having a discussion forum where users posts information related to Warez or links to downloadable media, you could also open yourself to legal complications in different countries, for instance in South Africa, if you do not host the files, but post links to the files, you can be charged criminally for conspiracy to commit a crime. This might be the same for many countries.

I would suggest that you do proper research on applicable laws in your own country or the country where you intend to host the site, as it will be bad when law enforcement comes knocking on your door one night with a warrant for your arrest and an extradition order.

 

Thanks for your post, just thought I'd correct you though - I used to live in the UK, and they have strict laws on warez as germany does. I don't think linking is allowed in either countries. <Unless you meant Ukraine>

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Can anybody reccomend me an offshore reseller?

 

presently my server is in netherlands, so far i am sending f*cking answers to all complaints.... lol

 

There are a lot of people who run those forums and host all of the files on rapidshare/zshare etc.