I'm opening a warez forum, but a friend said that I needed to read up on the laws so I prevent getting sued.
I thought that I could write in the TOS that the user accepts when he/she registeres that they're upload and download on their own responsibility and if I get contacted by DMCA, they will be forwarded to the person's email or such.
Would that work?
bump....
Some cleverheads must know?
It all depends where you host. You should just fork the 500-600 dollars a month for bullet proof hsoting.
Bullet proof hosting is no use if your still within jurisdiction of anywhere with anti-piracy laws and they are able to identify you.
If your actually hosting any pirated files onsite then your highly liable, if your just linking then your probably less liable but I am sure the US still has laws about assisting in a crime which is essentially what your doing. What will most likely happen is that your host will receive a complaint from a copyright holder and decide that defending you is more hassle than the $5/month or whatever your paying is worth and suspend your account. Not to mention that your host will probably have something about warez in their TOS.
In short, running a warez site is more hassle than it's worth and it's also a saturated market so I'm sure at the end of the day you can think up of a better topic for your forum.
@Tim my comment was assuming the OP didn't mind going to jail.
Ah yes, fair enough, well at least OP will be able to sleep well in their cold prison cell with the reasuring knowledge that their warez forum is still online.
Realistically though your probably more likely to face civil action over copyright infringement than criminal. Although it means you wont be going to jail it's actually worse for you because a civil case is usually much easier for publising companies to win. I don't know about in the US but in Australia only the majority of the jury need to support a decision in a civil case whereas the entire jury needs to agree for someone to be found guilty in a criminal case.
"Note: CyberWarez doesn't store any files listed, on its servers, but only helps share links. We should not be held responsible for any kind of illegal use of contents and damages occurred there-by."
Taken from the CyberWarez website.
I suggest you put this on your Home page.
Also a DISCLAIMER.
Read.
Thanks Mem and you others for your time replying
To be honest. It depends where your going to host at.
People are saying that offshore hosting will protect you. In reality it won't because if the actual host receives a complaint and they give out your IP which may be legally needed, then you will face charges for uploading these files to the server. As long as all warez is off your home PC then I may not see a problem. However buying an offshore dedicated server may be the best thing that is needed in this situation.
-Poppins