UBB.Developers Forums General Discussion Chit Chat Is it illegal to.....?

Recently, some of my members have begun posting threads containing links to Warez links, should I be deleting these posts? in other words, could I be held legally responsible for having these posts containing illegal content on my site? I don't really want to delete the posts (could upset my users) but then again, I don't want to get into any trouble either... plz some1 with knowledge advise!!

Not with the disclaimer ubb puts in the reg agreement, i dont believe so.

thanks for your reassuring statement Mastermind. Don't worry, I won't hold you accountable if I go to jail

If you don't want your users posting warez links, add that rule to the registration page. Then make a post that says from now on, no warez links are allowed. Then start pruning out the old warez threads - maybe close them and leave them up for a couple days, then take them down after everyone has gotten the idea that you're not tolerating warez links anymore.

I do believe MasterMind is correct that with the disclaimer statement you shouldn't have any trouble as far as legality is concerned. But warez in general are not a good idea to have floating around your site. And your host may have an anti-warez policy in your terms of service that would apply to the forums, no matter what the disclaimer said.

---Skorpion

yeh, very true about the hosts skorp. But you see, I don't really want to take the links down because they seem to attract quite a bit of traffic. Personally, I don't mind having the links there myself at all, but I just wanna make sure I won't get into trouble by leaving them on.

[ May 19, 2001 02:18 AM: Message edited by: fungpi ]

If you activly allow your board to be used for piracy, you are in for it. The only way you are protected is if you attempt to stop the problem. If you let it happen, you are considered a "distributer"... Up to you but... its a stupid thing to do(leaving the posts and letting it happen).

how much trouble are we talking about here? i mean if I let say make a forum called "warez" would i get into trouble? not that i have one. I'm just wondering about the law of these things.

Heh, making a forum called 'Warez' would just be encouraging it, and I thought you wanted to stop it..? Whatever, I would just slowly close/delete all the topics containing any warez material in them, and try to bring on different topics...

You will not get into trouble in you have links to other sites that contian the files. You will only get into trouble if the files are hosted on your server. trust me, Ive been through this before.

The laws are going to be different everywhere, and I couldn't exactly quote you any. However the basic idea is simple, you are promoting an illegal activity.

If it was ok, why would warez sites hide out in general? They would just post the software and let people download it(not that that doesn't happen), but they would do it out in the open, etc... They don't because they can get nailed. It's your butt, do what you want. But if you have to ask the question about its legality, that means you know you are at the very least walking a thin line.

Walk that line all ya want my friend, doesn't bother me what ya do either way.

Thanks guys, i think i get the general idea.... got some deleting to do!!

Here's a little more "definitive" answer to your questions:

http://bsa20.securesites.com/europe-eng/netpiracy/jump_netpiracy_myth.phtml

Ohh back in the day when I worked for a warez site, we used to submit ourselves to search engines, we used to have so many emails from the bsa it wasn't funny, but because of the location of the server, they couldn't do anything..

Warez is something you just live with, it happens and can not be stopped. Links to sites with warez on it, will bring you alot of traffic, but is that really the kinda traffic you want?? Soon you will have people requesting programs on your board, and people posting links to direct downloads of warez, which would then get you in trouble....