Is this a threat? What should I do?

[muppie]

Hi,

I run a web hosting company, and one of my customers who hosts his site using my service has been accused of breaching someone's copyright.

Basically according to this person, my customer has used the design that he did without paying him, so he says he is going to pursue legal actions, which might also drag me in.

What should I do in this case? I mean on one side I can't just suspend my customer's site because of a threat. But will I be liable for fine or get prosecuted if i didn't comply with this threat?

Should I talk to a lawyer, and who would you recommend (or maybe I can use your service if you are a lawyer)?

The business legal entity is based onthe Gold Coast QLD.

Thank you for your advice.

 

[sbe]

If it is bought to your attention, you need to get the person whose site it is to rectify the problem. This needs to have a deadline, an allowance for the site owner to appeal / argue, and it not resolved, a site / page suspension should ensue.

Reply to the complainant in writing, stating you have requested the owner of the site to either disprove the claim, or remove content by the copyright owner, and that they have until xx/xx/xxxx to comply or the site / offending content will be suspended.

Send a letter & email to the owner of the site stating the same.

You now have proof and a paper trail that once bought to your attention, you dealt quickly, fairly and decisively with the matter.

That's about the best I can think of.

Cheers,

Simon.

 

[muppie]

Thanks sbe. I am wondering though, should the complainant prove that he owns the copyright or should my customer prove he's not guilty?

 

[Kevin Hockey]

Speak to a lawyer Mup, make sure you cover your a....

Kev

www.nundahrealestate.com.au

 

[muppie]

Regarding lawyer, should I find someone that is at the same place where my business is? Or should I find someone from Sydney where they might have more experience in cases like these.

 

[Lotana]

Muppie,

Another idea is to make sure that your contract with customers explicitely states that you are not responsible for any IP claims raised by third parties agains the customer. You are just providing a technical platform for them. If the contracts don't exist - get them done now.

Cheers,
Lotana

 

[Puppeteer]

First up - I ain't a lawyer, so this isn't advice, just opinion, from my experience.

Generally the way that this stuff works is that the copyright is held by the designer and a right to use the copyrighted work is granted upon payment of the quoted fee.

It will depend very much upon the contract formed upon agreement of the job (if any), because there are quite a number of ways in which rights can be assigned/transferred.

If there was no contract formed when the job was agreed upon, then things could get pretty messy.

If it were me (and this shouldn't be taken as advice) I would be asking the complaintant for a copy of the contract. If it states that the copyright is to be transferred upon payment of a fee, then ask for a receipt from the party who have the site.

CC both parties in on all correspondence and give say 7 days to both parties to respond.

If they can't produce a contract then the whole thing could get pretty sticky.

Another way around this (and we use this if clients ask us to use copyrighted material in the audio production) is to get your client to sign a contract stating that they have permission to use the copyright material.

You may also want to add a section to your user agreements that users agree not to publish material to which they do not have copyright permission, and that they agree to absolve you of any legal liability should a copyright infringement issue come up, and agree to pay any legal costs associated with such infringements.

Have a disclaimer on your site that the hosting company, is not responsible for content posted by users.

At the end of the day though, this issue is really between the designer and your client, but to be on the safe side find your self and Intellectual Property lawyer. As a first step, sbe's advice sounds like a good idea.

You need to be careful removing content of a paying client, because they could then get at you for breach of contract. (ie you agreed to provide webspace for a fee which has been paid). There is a possibility that they could push for loss of income.

Good luck

 

[Aceyducey]

Originally posted by muppie
What should I do in this case? I mean on one side I can't just suspend my customer's site because of a threat. But will I be liable for fine or get prosecuted if i didn't comply with this threat?

Should I talk to a lawyer, and who would you recommend (or maybe I can use your service if you are a lawyer)?

Muppie,

I've been involved in a couple of these situations.

Firstly, don't panic - it's only a letter.

You need a solicitor with some internet copyright expertise. There should be some local ones around - try calling your friendly competitors (if you know any) and ask them if they know a solicitor who has worked in this area.

if you know anyone in the adult industry they may also be able to recommend a good solicitor - porn sites ALWAYS have a good legal council who understands legislation related to the web - but these people tend to be more expensive.

Without eyeballing the letter, or knowing what your legal docs that hosting site owners sign I can't give you a definitive opinion from my experience, however the likelihood is that you cannot be held responsible for any misuse of copyright that you were not aware of. Now you have been made aware of the situation, they can try to take you down with the website owner, but it would probably still not be worth their while.

i would suggest you take the following steps:

1) Inform the website owner of the letter
2) Locate and engage a solicitor to give you an opinion on the letter (also give them a copy of the offending site - printed & a copy of the legal terms the site owner signed with you.
3) Follow the solicitors' advise
4) Amend your policies & inform your hosted sites of the new policies so this doesn't happen again.

BTW: I can give you more specific info if you PM me more details - your call

And I wouldn't mind your site address anyway - I have sites that need hosting occasionally & like to know who's the bes & cheapest at the time (give the services I currently use a wake-up call every now & then).

Cheers,

Aceyducey