Online Copyright Infringement and ISPs

QUESTION:

I am a moderator for a large ISP on its public message boards, and I monitor the boards and remove inappropriate posts where I find them.  I've been noticing a lot of people posting entire articles on the message boards, rather than just a link or an excerpt.  Is this online copyright infringement?  I've been removing those kinds of posts, but I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do.  I've been getting a lot of angry responses from the users whose posts I've deleted.  Is what they're doing online copyright infringement?  What should I do?

ANSWER:

Copying someone else's entire article into a message board post is indeed online copyright Infringement. You're doing the right thing for your employer by taking the posts down.

ISPs are generally covered by a "safe harbor" provision to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which shields them from online copyright infringement liability.  To qualify for the safe harbor's protection, however, an ISP must not derive any kind of financial benefit from the infringing behavior, must have been originally unaware of the infringement and must take down the infringing material as soon as it becomes aware of it.  If an ISP violates any of these rules, it could find itself on the hook for the online copyright infringement of its users.

Your company no doubt wishes to remain in compliance with these rules, and removing the articles once you're aware of them is an important step in meeting the requirements of the DMCA.

If users continue to complain about their deleted posts, you can offer a few suggestions.  First, they could get permission from the copyright owner to republish the article.  Or they could summarize the article in their own words – that's perfectly legal under copyright law.  They can also copy small portions of the copyrighted material under the rule of "fair use" if they plan to comment on the excerpts.  Finally, they could simply offer a link to the content rather than posting the entire thing on the message board.