Internet law question

Dave91

hi ppl,
I dont wnt ppl to hate me for this but here it goes anyway;

I have a website, free one at the moment, that hosts torrents for Movies, MP3's, software and, as some ppl call them, cracks.

BUT, i need to know that if i clearly state that:
1) You must remove the downloaded content off your hard drive before 24 hours.
2) I and this host takes no responsability for miss use of its content.

Could i get thrown into prison??
Am i breaking any law??

Thanks!!,
Dave

Blogoffmen

you're not breaking the law your are violating it!

your free website will be gone anytime soon.

most likely they will track your ip...

hosted in wich country?

Voodoo2

Yup your breaking the law,

but it think you would be in less trouble if you linked the files from your site to where ever you got them!? i think but i could be wrong, i dont know how some sites are getting away with it!

condra

Alright Dave,

blah which is based in Sweden has been hosting all sorts of torrents for quite some time.

It seems that the only people who chase them for legal reasons are the software companies and media corporations whos intelectual property is allegedly being shared.

If you go to their legal page, blah you can see all manner of threatening letters and emails they have recieved, most of which have been replied to with jokes etc. Nobody has managed to get the pirate bay off the net to date. I think being based in Sweden gives them some legal advantage, Im not 100% sure about that one.

What I would wonder is what you have to gain from putting so much work into your site, and who would use it rather than using something like the pirate bay, emule, limewire etc.

Regarding your warning, I wouldnt bother. You are not sharing copyrighted content. Youre sharing torrent files, which, to my knowledge is perfectly legal in Europe at the moment.

I think the chances of you going to jail are extremely remote, and the worst I can imagine happening is your site being taken down by your site host people.

Still theres no point putting lots of work into a website which nobody really needs.

Good luck.


MiCr0: Don't link to sites with illegal content

Mutant_Fruit

Rule of thumb... DON'T LINK TORRENT SITES. Its against the charter (iirc) and is likely to get a rap on the knuckles. Edit your post and remove those links.

condra

oops. kool.

Syth

IANAL etc.

Dave91 wrote:

1) You must remove the downloaded content off your hard drive before 24 hours.

This kind of disclaimer is common, especially on rom and emulation sites. But I don't think copyright law has any kind of expemption like that, so it could be pointless.

As for hosting torrents, in my non-legal opinion, it's a massive grey area. A torrent contains data on where to get other data (which might be copyrighted). I like to think of it as knowing that if you go into a certain bar and ask the barman, he can tell you where to get a prostitute. Is it illegal to know someone who can tell you how to break the law? Of course if you were to run a tracker yourself, then you'd be like the barman.

As for cracks... How can a serial number like 2P3KL-YZCRK-T23MH-CR247-KT222 be illegal?

But there is one massive problem with what I just outlined. There are a lot of rich companies that don't like what the internet has made possible. They have lots of money, odds are you don't. If they go after you, you're probably screwed and it'll all be over before you get to see a judge. And of course the people who run boards are (legitimatly) scared of those bullies, so they would not be too eager to have all this discussed here.

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

DON'T LINK TORRENT SITES

Not even Google?

condra

2P3KL-YZCRK-T23MH-CR247-KT222

hey thanks for that- got vista installed now its working great.:D

Dave91

thanks for the help people,

only for im really sad about this all now

Dave

Capt'n Midnight

Syth wrote:

This kind of disclaimer is common, especially on rom and emulation sites. But I don't think copyright law has any kind of expemption like that, so it could be pointless.

As for cracks... How can a serial number like 2P3KL-****-T23MH-CR247-KT222 be illegal?

Works by corporate authors are protected for 120 years from creation or 95 years from publication. Not sure if this would cover serials too.

Copyright protection is automatic , it doesn't need to be stated .

IIRC Under English law (possibly Irish law too) there used to be a provision where if you stole something and returned if before the owner knew it was missing then you could not be charged with theft. Of course this may not be true.

As an aside there used to be a provision to return the copyright to the estate of a writer 25 years after their death..