Being from Australia also, I can tell you this, if you are running a warez site and the copyright owning company comes after you, the Australian government will hand you over without a moments hesitation. See this story as one example. http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php/id;1503107502;fp;2;fpid;1 Even if you didn't get in as much strife as that fellow, do you think the pittance you'll recieve in advertising revenue is worth the potential of a criminal record?
i am already running huge warez forum and receive many DMCA complaints and i just say F*ck off since i am in UK region where linking is allowed.
Members at DP seem to be rather misled about the legal issues surrounding warez. Host yourself offshore, and you can host as much warez as your server can hold, and you are safe. One thing that you may encounter however, is occasional DMCA requests from companies and owners of software requesting that you remove the copyrighted material they own. Comply with these requests and remove what they ask you too, and you will be absolutely fine. It's only if you ignore these requests that you may run into legal problems, and even this is very unlikely (unless it's the likes of Microsoft, etc). The only time the above is not true is if your community becomes extremely large. By this I mean on of the leading warez forums online. At this point, corporations may pursue you with legal action and court orders to make an example of you in an attempt to scare off other people creating similar communities.
From what I understand it takes someone to complaine .. but to be honest why would anyone be on those forums if they were not there to get something so why would they complain?
I guess it's a bad idea then, especially when you are on temporary residancy.. don't wanna get deported back to England!
Its a risky business but you're not the only one whose doing it..so theres a good chance of getting away with it
Asked ccihosting.com (offers offshore hosting in panama) and they say in AUP warez is illegal in panama. Support say: we terminate account when we receive any complain you are running warez linking forum.
Well, just get offshore hosting and use a File Host such as Rapidshare/Megaupload/etc. Then just play the "Blame Game". "Oh, we are just doing this for educational purposes. Anyway, we just "index" the files. You should go to the ones who host the files." Anyway, it won't matter if you don't get too big.