Can forums and social network type sites also be successfully sued?

[o1819026]

Curious if Getty image type infringement lawsuits also apply to open forums. I have forums with 25,000 users and I couldn't realistically moderate what each one does. People are constantly changing their forum avatars, signatures, etc... It would be close to impossible to moderate each post. Similarly, would a social network type site like Facebook be open to such a lawsuit. Millions of images are posted there each day.

Can someone please explain?

Thanks!

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

Simple solution in your case would be to assign a registered agent, which would cover you under theDMA safe harbor. By law they would need to send a formal takedown request, which your "agent" would need to act upon... there are some threads here regarding this and if I remember correctly there is one that outlines the requirements and steps to take to be covered by DMCA.

::EDIT:: without a registered agent, legally you could be on the hook for any infringements, I strongly suggest looking int this and doing it, given your amount of users..