Most sites these days are a mixture of content created by the site’s creator and content uploaded by those who visit it.
The exact formula changes depending on the site itself. For example, a less-travelled blog may have thousands of posts by the author and only a handful of comments by readers. On the other hand, a popular forum may have thousands of times more posts by the community than the admins.
But this mashup creates a serious problem legally. Your rights and obligations vary wildly depending on if the content on your site is from your hand or the hand of a visitor.
These distinctions are going to be getting a lot more attention in the coming months as Digg relaunched to strongly feature content from its editors, changing the dynamics of that site.
So, if you’re running a website, whether it’s a blog, forum or something else altogether, it’s important to understand the differences legally and what you need to do to protect yourself from the various legal threats that come with each type of content. [Read more…] about What the Law Says About User-Generated Content