Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but it seemed like one of the better options.Example here. Say, I have an online library where users can submit e-books and PDFs they created. All fine and dandy, until someone comes around and starts uploading books that are not their own. Sure, we have a moderation team in place that regularly checks new additions, but some may slip past the radar, especially when dealing with fairly unknown authors.The author of the (illegally) uploaded books finds the site, browses it for a bit, and to his shock finds that his books are available there for free. Copyright infringement! They sue me for hosting the library website, and I get in deep trouble because some user did something he wasn't allowed to.How can I avoid getting in trouble over this?Will I be safe is I state in the Terms of Use that it is not allowed to upload copyright infringing material, and that all users are responsible for what they upload? Or does the web admin is responsible for his sites and their content clause negate all others?Thanks!UPDATE: Also asked a lawyer online. They gave an answer pretty close to what the people on here said. See this link.
Responsibility in case of copyright infringing user-submitted content
copyright;user generated content
A similar issue arose a few years back with someone I worked with, and basically came out as this:As long as the website owner/host makes a significant effort to remove copyrighted content in a reasonable time frame, and originally is unaware of the content, they shall not be held liable for the user-submitted content.You will of course have to find a decent lawyer to help prove that you make reasonable efforts to prevent this sort of thing. I do think, though, that it wasn't the best decision to allow anyone to upload files that could potentially be not owned by the uploader.It also depends on what country your servers are located, example here: http://germanitlaw.com/?p=683Another option is to personally sue the person who posted the content. But please don't take any of this for direct legal advice, it's only based off of a prior incident, not quoted from any lawyer.