Copyright enforcement

seon123 · August 3, 2018

So while I signed up for the LTT Beta (pronounced beta, not beta), I read the Terms of Use. There I found

Quote

You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by this website.

Which made me wonder, how enforced is it really?

Has any thread ever gotten locked, content deleted or account banned?

If someone posted a full Floatplane video or a full length movie, I could see the content getting removed, but how about the rest? If I post a picture of Mickey Mouse, what would happen?

dalekphalm · August 3, 2018

11 hours ago, seon123 said:

So while I signed up for the LTT Beta (pronounced beta, not beta), I read the Terms of Use. There I found

Which made me wonder, how enforced is it really?

Has any thread ever gotten locked, content deleted or account banned?

If someone posted a full Floatplane video or a full length movie, I could see the content getting removed, but how about the rest? If I post a picture of Mickey Mouse, what would happen?

Copyright generally relies on a reactive enforcement mechanism.

That means, the copyright holder (or someone working on their behalf) will need to identify that this copyrighted material is posted here, and then they would issue a takedown notice (if they are an American company - or if the hosting site is American - they would issue a DMCA takedown request).

The operators of the website are marginally required to remove content when it's super obvious, such as if another member reports a post (If you posted a copyrighted image, I could report your post, and the staff would be obligated to at least investigate, if nothing else). However, because of the nature of such a site as this, they're not required to actively police all content, because it would be impossible to do so without automation.

By and large, if the copyright holder (or their representative) doesn't ask for content to be taken down, it usually won't be.

Edit: there's also exceptions to copyright law, called "Fair Use". These exceptions fall under a number of categories, including journalism, satire, and critique, etc.

So that means if you create a Mickey Mouse meme, that should in theory be protected via Satire Fair Use. With that in mind, Fair Use is a reactive protection. The copyright holder can still request a takedown, and you have to go to court to prove your content fits fair use.