Though the focus of this site is on copyright and plagiarism issues, there are other legal issues that Webmasters, community administrators and others need to worry about.

One of the thornier issues has to do with libel, especially when it involves communities, blog comments or other user-generated content.

One such example of this involves the forum site Scubaboard, which was sued for libel by a travel agency that accused it of posting false statements about a tragic incident involving the company in 2008 where one diver died and 10 others were sickened by tainted air.

I did a write up on the case as for my good friend and Copyright 2.0 Show co-host Patrick O’Keefe well as some general advice for forum administrators on libel issues.

In addition to the background of the case, I also offer some basic analysis of the law in this area as well as tips and suggestions for other forum administrators to try to reduce the various dangers.

It is a lengthy piece but one that is important to anyone who runs a community, whether it’s a message board, blog comments or anything to the like.

So, if you are an artist and are interested in copyright issues, it is worth a moment to have an understanding at least some of the issues involved in libel law online. If that’s the case, this article and the links off it may be a great place to begin.

However, forum spam has typically shared the most in common with blog comment spam. A few junk links mixed with some garbled text in a bid to create a search engine pump. Although such spam has been the bane of forum admins, it has been relatively easy to control and has raised few issues for content creators.

But a new twist on forum spam changes that game. Spammers have begun to use forums much like spam blogs, using them as a tool for posting scraped content, rather than just garbage links.

This brings a whole new series of challenges to both forum admins and copyright holders as they both seek to keep the Web clean of spam content and plagiarized works.

Why Forums

Spammers are naturally drawn to forums for a lot of reasons. Consider the following:

1. Open Registration: Anyone can set up an account at most forums and the process of doing so can be easily automated at many locations since most forums use one of a handful forum applications, many of which have weak signup protections.


2. High Trust: Forums generally have a high level of trust with search engines and are very search-engine friendly in most cases. Many forums carry a high PageRank and can provide an excellent platform for spammers to build search engine ranking.


3. NoFollow: Unlike blog comments, which are almost always “nofollowed”, the linking policy for each forum is different. Many, however, do not nofollow links contained in the post itself.
   
4. Overworked Admins: If spam is able to get through the automated protections, it may be quite some time before an admin or a moderator is able to remove it. Active forums have many times more posts than most blogs have comments and most forum admins do not receive email alerts for every new post.


5. Low-Hanging Fruit: In addition to active and trusted forums, there are countless inactive ones that still have a Web presence. The forum admins may never remove spam on those, making them ripe targets for spammers, despite the lack of trust and updates.

However, these reasons for targeting forums are well-known and have been around for some time. Forum admins took an interest in stopping spam well before most bloggers did and have tools in place to try and block it.

But while many of those protections have been cracked, most well-maintained forums are relatively free from spam, the same as most well-maintained blogs.

But a new wave of spam may be changing that and very soon.

Forum Spam Redux

As is typical with the games of cat and mouse, spammers have escalated their attacks on forums and are working harder to blend in with legitimate users.

One of the techniques they are using is the scraping, or mere hand-copying, of articles and posting them to related forums. However, the use of the work is, for the most part, unattributed and often times the links contained within the article are altered to point to the spam sites.

Other times, spammers simply create profiles, post seemingly legitimate but otherwise junk content, usually by copying other sources, and bury the spam links in their user information.

Both of these techniques closely mirror the activities of legitimate users and, since many forums take a lenient attitude toward copyright infringement by itself, forum admins are often slow to take action against such spammers as they rarely spot them.

It is not uncommon to see cases where a spammer has posted a scraped article, loaded it with junk links, and has received replies from regular members, further validating the post.

Content creators, however, suffer from this. While they might not be opposed to the copying and reposting of their work on the forum, the unattributed use practically guarantees that, in many cases, the forum will rank higher in the search engines and their own site will suffer.

The forum itself will also suffer, potentially having to face copyright complaints from angry Webmasters and dealing with potential Google spam blocks that could make it harder for them to be ranked in the long term.

It is in the best interest of forum admins and content creators alike that these spammers be thwarted.

What Forum Admins Can Do

Forum admins already have their hands full and this new spam attack is not going to make things any easier. However, there are some things that they can do to help not only themselves, but their community and content creators.

1. Be Available: A good general rule for forum admins is to be available for anyone who visits your forum to make complaints, point out spam or otherwise raise issues. This means having an email address on the public-facing portion of your site so non-members can contact you as easily as your users.


2. Don’t Tolerate Copyright Infringement: Don’t wait for others to file copyright infringement complaints. If a users republishes an article or is clearly copying and posting whole works in posts, truncate the post and link to the source. Make this part of your policy. Forums rely on original content and good discussions, wholesale copying is not necessary for that.


3. Investigate Questionable Users: If a user does infringe, especially if they do so more than once, take a closer look at them including their profile links. Make sure they are not trying to spam the forum discreetly.


4. Nofollow Links: If your software has the ability to nofollow links in posts, it is likely a good idea to do so, especially with new users or users that have not earned a great deal of trust.


5. Update Spam Protection: Keep on top of your regular spam protection tools and keep your countermeasures up to date. Like most of these items, it is a good idea in general but is especially important as spammers continue to crack CAPTCHAs and other torture tests.

In short, these are good steps that all forum admins should take, regardless of whether they are currently spam targets or not. Though the problem seems to be currently isolated to technology forums (video games, computers, cell phones, etc.), some gambling forums and adult communities, it is only a matter of time before it spreads.

That is, if it hasn’t already.

Conclusions

In the end, this is just another escalation in the war between administrators and spammers, but this escalation has some potentially drastic consequences for bloggers, journalists and other content creators.

It is important that this trend be watched closely to see if it continues or if it fizzles out and goes nowhere.

However, given the nature of spammers to constantly try different techniques, it seems unlikely that they will retreat from a method if it has been shown to have any success.

Rather, they will just add on other techniques and further expand their operations.

However, there are still many thriving communities on the Web that use message boards to communicate. They are still popular with those in literature, role playing and sports communities among others. Its ability to offer niche communities targeted forums for their conversation and discussion has given the message board an ongoing place on the Web.

But message board hosts often take a very distant attitude when it comes to copyright on their service. Though they are technically protected by the DMCA, they often rely on the admins and moderators of their individual forums to do the heavy lifting on these issues.

While that sounds great in theory, it does nothing to stop cases where the admin either refuses to delete the infringing material or is the one actually doing in the infringing. For those cases, the host is needed to step up and step in, but how willing are such hosts to handle such matters? Let’s take a look and find out.

Format: Email
Email Address: sdemello at ezboard dot com
Location of Policy: Submit Legal Complaint Page
Registered with USCO: Yes
Comments: An industry leader and one of the most popular message board hosts, ezboard takes legal issues very seriously. Their Submit Legal Complaint Page reads like a syllabus for a mass media law class. However, their DMCA policy leaves a great deal to be desired. They don’t repeat their contact information, as required by the law, they make no mention of repeat infringers and offer no guidance on how to be DMCA compliant. All you get is a form, much to small for the purpose, and a check box to mark that you are reporting copyright infringement. Fortunately, they are registered with the USCO so you can get their “real” information there, but its clear from looking at their online policy that they do not place high value on these copyright issues.
Grade: D+

Format: Form
Email Address: None
Location of Policy: Terms of Service
Registered with USCO: No
Comments: A big name not just in the message board hosting field, but in hosting Web sites, blogs and photo galleries, Bravenet’s copyright policy is a major disappointment. Though, under 8f of their terms of service they take a very strong stand against copyright infringement, there is no DMCA information on their site, no registration with the USCO and no other mention about how to handle such matters. All that you get is a form to file your complaint with no instruction about how to do it. Though I’ve heard that Bravenet responds quickly to such complaints, the fact is there is nothing on their site about it, at least nothing that I’ve found.
Grade: F

Format: Form
Email Address: None
Location of Policy: Terms of Service
Registered with USCO: No
Comments: Pro is supposed to be short for “professional” but there is little professional about the way this site handles abuse. Their terms of use is terminally short. There is no mention of copyright at all in their TOS, just a brief mention that “User’s content must comply in a manner consistent with any and all applicable laws of the State of California and the US Federal Government.” There is no DMCA information on the site, no registration with the USCO and their form to report violations of the TOS doesn’t even have an option to report infringement of text, just images. Where they could have simply said “Using Copyrighted Material” they said “Using Copyrighted Images”. I find that somewhat insulting considering message boards are still one of the top places I find my literature being plagiarized. All in all, there’s nothing here, just a lot of legal holes left to fill.
Grade: F

Format: Email
Email Address: agent at invisionfree dot com
Location of Policy: Legal Page
Registered with USCO: Yes
Comments: Finally, a message board host that gets it right and does it well! Their DMCA policy is very robust, has all of the needed information and is located easily under the “Legal” link at the bottom of every page they control. Though they don’t have it in the footer of the actual forums, all you have to do is visit their home page and you’ll find it there easily. They’ve registered their site with the USCO and have done an all around thorough job here. The one minor omission is that they do not have a stated policy on repeat infringers. An easy oversight and not a major deal by itself. All in all, their policy is complete, easy to find and profession. A model for others in the field.
Grade: B

Format: Email
Email Address: tos at hyperboards dot com
Location of Policy: Terms of Service
Registered with USCO: No
Comments: If you’re looking for someone to report a TOS violation to at Hyperboards, you’ll be looking for a while. To find the email, you have to first visit their support forum, you then go to the FAQ board and, from there, click on “Other Information“. Only then do you get the option of “Reporting a TOS Violation“. If you’re counting, that’s four clicks to find the information to report ANY abuse, including copyright infringement. Hyperboards has no DMCA policy, no DMCA agent, and their terms of service makes no explicit mention of copyright, just a more generic “You agree not to use Hyperboards for any unlawful purpose.” There’s nothing here but headaches when it comes to copyright issues.
Side Note: I don’t usually do this kind of commentary when I do a DMCA Seven review, but a line in their TOS really drew my attention:

“You agree to refrain from using ‘ad-blockers’ such as ‘pop-up blockers’ and the use of ‘scripts’ or html in order to disable or hide any and all advertisements found on any and all Hyperboards forums. If you are using a browser with a built in ‘pop-up blocker’ you agree to disable the ‘ad-blocking’ feature on your browser.”

They are saying, essentially, that by visiting the site with Safari, which has built-in popup blocking, that I was violating their TOS. Good thing I’m not a member, otherwise they might have “terminated” my account. At least that’s what they say in the TOS.
Grade: F

Format: Fax
Email Address: None
Location of Policy: Terms of Service Violations & Legal Issues
Registered with USCO: No
Comments: Sparklit is actually a Canadian company meaning that they are not technically bound by the DMCA. However, one look at their copyright policy and it is clear that they reference it and require a DMCA notice to act. But even though they expect submitters to follow the DMCA, they don’t themselves. There is no email address for the DMCA agent, no registration with the USCO and their Legal Issue Support Form is just a PDF that needs to be faxed or mailed in. It is like Google’s policy, only much worse. What is especially unnerving is that this is the method used to deal with all abuse complaints, including some which may have urgent needs such as privacy and direct linking issues. But, as bad as it is, they at least have a policy and have made it clear.
Grade: D-

Format: Email
Email Address: tos at delphiforums dot com
Location of Policy: Terms of Service
Registered with USCO: No
Comments: Delphi is one of the most popular forum sites on the Web. However, their forums look and feel different than almost anything else on the Web. However, when it comes to their copyright and DMCA policy, they are pretty much par for the course in this field. Their TOS makes it pretty clear they don’t tolerate copyright infringement and they offer an email address to report all violations, but that is about it. There is no DMCA agent, no USCO registration, nothing. If you’ve never sent a DMCA notice before, this site would be a nightmare to try it out on.
Grade: D-

Conclusions

When I decided on this topic, I knew that it wouldn’t go well. However, I had no idea that it would go quite this badly.

Of the seven reviewed, six got a D+ or below. Only one, Invisionfree, got above a C.

These services are often called dinosaurs and, looking around these sites, I can see why. I saw home pages not updated in more than five years, TOSs not updated in at least as long and almost none of the DMCA compliance we see and expect form other online service provides.

This is a service area where the hosts have clearly fallen behind in more ways than one and that age is now not only risking their business, but their legal protections. The DMCA is there specifically to protect OSPs such as message board hosts and to ignore or otherwise not follow it essentially turns down free protection from certain legal risks.

They’re foolish for doing it and they are endangering the rest of the Web. By having such lax policies they risk making their sites havens for all kinds of unseemly activity. That, of course, will only further sink the reputation of the message board as a community format and could be a nail in the coffin of what is already seen as a struggling industry.

What the Ratings Mean

A – A complete policy that goes well above and beyond what is required. Often shows real innovation.
B – A solid policy that is well-thought out and is very complete. Shows consideration for submitters and users.
C – An average policy, follows the law to the letter but doesn’t go out of its way to help those submitting a notice or its users.
D – A policy that, while mostly complete, still raises severe ethical and/or legal questions.
F – An incomplete policy that fails to follow the DMCA or local laws in a severe way.

Pluses or minuses are used to indicate how the where a host fits in relationship to other hosts in that that tier.

The problem is that the community admin, the person usually in the best position to deal with any content theft, has no rights or control over the work on the site. Even the most liberal of copyright licenses do not give the admin copyright control over the work and, thus, they can not determine where else the work is displayed.

The decision about how and if to battle content theft on such sites does not rest in the hands of any one person, but rather, in the hands of the users, a group that can easily number into the hundreds or the thousands.

However, a community site is no different from an individual blog or company home page, the content is still crucial to the future of the site as it attracts new members, builds search engine traffic and is the basis for contextual advertising. Furthermore, many members will not participate in a site if they know that posting there almost certainly means their hard work will be ripped off.

Protecting it is still important, but doing so is a much greater challenge.

Who’s Copyright is it Anyway?

Since transferring a copyright requires a written contract signed by the two parties copyright holder (Thank you Aaron for catching the error), the simple act of posting a work to a forum or a wiki does not cause the copyright to transfer with it. Thus, the user retains control over the copyright, though he or she does allow the site to display the work, and can decide where and if the work can be displayed elsewhere.

This means that only the user can say no to an infringement and only the user, or an agent authorized to act on their behalf, can file a DMCA notice over such an infringement.

This means that, if a forum or wiki is being scraped or otherwise plagiarized, it is up to the individual users to file complaints with the host to get the work removed. However, as any forum administrator will know, getting users to act in a coordinated manner, especially when many may have differing views about the infringement, can be nearly impossible.

Fortunately, it is not necessary, nor even desirable, to bring all members on board in such an event. Instead, there are other steps that can be taken to ensure that the forum or wiki is, overall, very well protected.

Methods for Success

Dealing with this form of content theft requires a large dose of prevention and advance planning. Getting yourself ready and having your users prepared can make all of the difference when and if the need to act should arise.

1. Prepare Your Users: Let your users know that the danger is out there, offer them information how to search for plagiarism of their work and give them the tools to handle any incidents that do arise. Also, encourage them to go to you or another moderator if they discover any such theft, especially if it involves other work on the site as well.
2. Participate in Your Site: Many administrators don’t contribute to their own forums, however, if you participate and any work of yours is scraped or copied, you then have a direct copyright interest and can act yourself to stop it.
3. Rally Key Members: Nearly every forum has moderators and/or key members that are responsible for a large percentage of the posting. If you get their cooperation in advance and touch base with them about where else they post their works, you can not only be more certain of infringement but, if needed, even get them to let you act as a designated agent, enabling you to file notices on their behalf.
4. Disable or Truncate RSS Feeds: Forums, unlike blogs, generally have little use for RSS feeds. Most members use internal tools to monitor what is new on the site. If your forum software automatically generates RSS feeds, it is probably wise to disable them or convert them to headline-only.
5. Spot Check Content: As with any site, it pays to occasionally spot check the content posted there, especially the more popular works, to see if it has been plagiarized. Even if you can not act on it right then, you can notify the original user and advise them on what they can do.

The bottom line is that, as a community site admin, you have to be knowledgeable about these issues and be prepared, if needed, to offer guidance to your users to help them deal with these matters.

After all, stopping plagiarism of your users’ work is not just in their best interest, but yours as well. The more unique content your site has, the more it can grow and tighter-knit it will be.

Conclusions

Being a community administrator is very hard work. Even a community of modest size can create a lot of headaches. Running such a site requires being a parent, a mediator, a guide, a teacher, a protector and a motivator.

As a former community admin myself, I know how challenging this can be, especially when controversy seems to be eating the site alive.

Copyright infringement of user work is just another worry to add to the already long list of concerns. Depending on the nature of your community, it may not be a problem worth much worry, on other sites, such as literature forums, it may be of a very high priority.

However, it is always worth thinking about and having a plan in place.

Because, as bad as having your community ripped off can be, it is much worse if there is no plan of action. If you have a strategy, you can quickly get back to worrying about spammers, trolls, flame wars and the other problems that come with running a community-based site.

Then again, perhaps worrying about copyright infringement isn’t such a bad deal after all…