[Tyler@Purlize]

via an article on the Wired ThreatLevel Blog...

Quote

Call it ingenious, call it evil or call it a little of both: Copyright troll Righthaven is exploiting a loophole in intellectual property law, suing websites that might have avoided any trace of civil liability had they spent a mere $105.

That’s the fee for a blog or other website to register a DMCA takedown agent with the U.S. Copyright Office, an obscure bureaucratic prerequisite to enjoying a legal “safe harbor” from copyright lawsuits over third-party posts, such as reader comments.

I don't think I can post links yet (just registered), but a simple Google Search for the headline should give you the result you're looking for.

Have any of you run into this or shown it to your clients?

Just an FYI

[MikeChipshop]

I did have a client concerned over the threat of third party comments destroying his living.
My words to him were simply "Use common sense" If you properly moderate your site and have a basic amount of common sense then you should be fine.

[Tyler@Purlize]

Agreed. May be worth passing on the article as well for future reference.

Thought it was nicely done by Wired.

[kingy da killa]

MikeChipshop, on 10 May 2011 - 09:30 AM, said:

I did have a client concerned over the threat of third party comments destroying his living.

How would this happen?

Please xsplain

[MikeChipshop]

kingy da killa, on 10 May 2011 - 10:18 AM, said:

How would this happen?

Please xsplain

The content on your blog (including comments) is up to you to moderate and is entirely your responsibility.
Let's say i go on there and there's some slanderous drivel on there about me, i'm free to sue you for slander and so on and so forth.
No amount of warnings that the content is from third parties is going to help you.

[Renaissance-Design]

kingy da killa, on 10 May 2011 - 10:18 AM, said:

How would this happen?

Please xsplain

Basically, you're responsible for any defamatory or illegal content posted to your blog in comments.

[kingy da killa]

Renaissance-Design, on 10 May 2011 - 10:32 AM, said:

Basically, you're responsible for any defamatory or illegal content posted to your blog in comments.

I understand now, similar to the new driving law thats come into place; if anybody in your car throws litter out the windows the driver gets done

owell ! if your hosting a website suppose your responible!