Timeline for Answers that direct towards material that infringes copyright
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 14, 2011 at 9:34 | comment | added | Simon P Stevens | @Joel - Do you need me to update my response to clarify things? | |
| May 13, 2011 at 5:26 | comment | added | Joel Coehoorn Mod | @Simon - This is old now, but I do want to clarify one point in case you're still around. The legal issue here requires that we not take action on copyright grounds alone. That's why their's a distinction between copyright and plagiarism, and why we don't like link-only questions. You can edit for those reasons. Also, this only applies to agents of Stack Overflow - regular users can make any edit they want. | |
| May 10, 2010 at 20:13 | comment | added | David Thornley | @Simon: IANAL, but I've seen some odd things crop up in law, and in this case it might be good to consult a lawyer. I don't think individual actions will hold the site to any liability, but an official policy might. The best reason I've got for making that comment is that I've got a bad feeling about this, and know just enough to make me nervous, so don't take this as advice (except for the part about consulting a lawyer). | |
| May 10, 2010 at 16:47 | comment | added | beska | @Kop: Of course not. They could (and would) be quickly deleted because, regardless of copyright issues, they are not fitting in with the purpose of the site. The tricky part that Joel is talking about is in regards to posts that do attempt to remain within the natural range of what the site is for ("answering programming questions"). | |
| May 10, 2010 at 16:23 | comment | added | Andreas Bonini | I agree with @Simon. What happens if I start posting spam questions that have no content but only a long list of links to illegal material? You are legally prevented to delete them? So basically if I want to destroy SO I will just start posting 2-3 of such "questions" every minute and you won't be able to do anything about it? | |
| May 10, 2010 at 16:19 | comment | added | Simon P Stevens | @David @Joel: I still don't get this. I'm not disputing the law, or your interpretation, but it just seems crazy. We are all agreed that nobody wants this kind of link on SO legal or otherwise (I presume), but seemingly the law says that if we remove them, SO becomes at risk of prosecution when a future link isn't removed fast enough. So the outcome is that SO (& the users) become unable to police the content on their own site. This just seems totally backwards to me. Perhaps this question needs an "official" standpoint from Jeff or the SO team so the community and mods know how to act. | |
| May 10, 2010 at 14:25 | history | edited | Joel CoehoornMod | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
added 234 characters in body
|
| May 10, 2010 at 14:22 | comment | added | Joel Coehoorn Mod | @Simon - the pdf is probably illegal, but linking to a single illegal pdf is almost certainly legal (linking to a lot of illegal files with little other activity is still up in the air). In the long run, we probably don't want to encourage such links, because over time those links will tend to go bad. But the copyright view of the issue is that we have to leave it alone. | |
| May 10, 2010 at 14:08 | comment | added | David Thornley | @Simon: The fundamental issue here is that, once a site sets themselves up as a filter for X, they may be liable for violations of X. The DMCA in the US codifies this for some extent for copyright, by providing a "safe harbor" method for websites to operate. This question is best left for an actual lawyer. | |
| May 10, 2010 at 13:50 | comment | added | Simon P Stevens | I kind of see your point, but in this case the book is quite clearly copyrighted and not distributed freely. The PDF linked is quite clearly illegal. Are you really saying the community can't moderate and make the decision that it doesn't want that kind of content linked to. It's the community making the decision, not SO the company. | |
| May 10, 2010 at 13:41 | history | answered | Joel CoehoornMod | CC BY-SA 2.5 |