Should internet forums be exempt from copyright laws,

I would suggest to the participants to this discussion not to take a look around on the net to try and understand how image hosting sites deal with copyrights.

Unfortunately on the net there is a well evident lack of control and when the control comes ... it may happen that even a famous and appreciated site [considered serious, balanced ... and so on ...] can find itself in serious troubles.

The first control should be on the side of the user. For example on Political Forum I'm not so sure that all the pictures in the albums of the members are not copyrighted ... but who can have enough time to control? May be there are occasional controls, but what about the mass of uploaded pictures?

A correct behavior by the users is the first and most efficient way to protect a site [of any kind] from risks connected with copyrighted materials.

 

I have a solution, declare the military photo website an archives of photos that have a historical military significance. Problem solved.

It becomes an education website.

BTW: The only photos protected by copyright laws are those photos that have been registered and copyrighted.

 

It is already to late for MilitaryPhotos.net but all good forums expand people's knowledge & as such could be called education websites. If it were to be applied generally a fair system would have to be put in place for forums to qualify & register as an education website.

Freddy.

 

No registering needed to be an education or history website.

Where copyrights violations get involved is when copyrighted material is being used om websites for profit and the owners are making a profit from the website. If there's no advertising there could be no profits being made. Advertising or donations that go to maintenance of the website, paying for the servers, etc. is not profits being made just the cost of running the website.

The only people who ever got their panties all wadded up in a bunch about copyright infringements on the internet has been the music industry and Associated Press (AP) I think AP has given up.

What happened over on the MilitaryPhotos.Net ? Who complained about copyright infringements ? Was it some liberal troll who hates every thing military and was causing problems ?

 

The following is a post by a Mod called "digrar", "hood" is the owner of MilitaryPhotos.net.

Quote Originally Posted by AAAH View Post
Why is MP.Net going away? Why touch something everyone enjoys visiting and is used to?

There was this.

Quote Originally Posted by hood View Post
Running this board takes a good amount of time and attention and I'm at the point where I need to let go of one of the things I'm juggling. This user community deserves a dedicated group running it, so this is the best way to see that it keeps going strong.

Then this.

Quote Originally Posted by hood View Post
You have no idea what I've read, nor do you know about the lawyers I've had to deal with and pay large sums of money to. It matters not if you're legally right, you're still going to have to defend yourself to get to a judgement or dismissal. One of the reasons why I'm not working to keep the site up in some form is for the countless users who would be subjected to continued liability because of a post they made a long time ago. On my end, it's referred to as a non-party subpoena. It's where a law firm isn't suing me, but where a court requires that I turn over information about a user who posted something on this site and requires that I help some law firm go after someone here. It's not something I'm looking to see happen anymore.


And a second post by digrar in reply to a request for a photo thread on the new forum.

He could have, but was under no obligation to do so.
I'm pretty sure he didn't want to sell/give the mods a lemon, hence the reason it's getting parked. We've taken his advice on board and will go down a different road.


There was also a conflict between an Airsoft Association & MilitaryPhotos.net that may or may not have led to some dobbing in. You can only imagine the sort of animosity that could be created by a bunch of paint ballers posting pictures of their sport on a military forum. In the end I think hood just got worn out & worn down by the whole thing.

Freddy

 

So wait. I go into Baltimore and at great risk get the ONLY photo of 4 cops beating up Obama in a fit of pique. I can't make any money?

 

Or better, what about this Selfie of me and Tenzing Norgay atop Mt Everest in 1954? (Sorry, dropped my computer and the 20 mins ran out while I replaced the battery)

 

Making money isn't politically correct.

Obama money is politically correct.

 

Maybe it should be exempt from copyright whenever it involves anything political.

In any case, I see a very slippery slope here.

 

The entire forum would have to be exempted on the basis that it is primarily for political discussion/debates & certified as such otherwise posters will have two different sets of rules to comply with when jumping from political to non political threads & lawyers will come in & start nitpicking individual posts.

Non political threads would also have to be limited to maintain certification. Threads such as a cultural music/dance thread could be a no go area & would science/technology threads be regarded as generally political or nonpolitical in nature?

Freddy.

 

MilitaryPhotos.net is still viewable but last post was 31 hours ago by site owner "hood". 1909 users currently on line viewing the old threads. MilitaryPhotos.net "R.I.P.".

Freddy.