Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5070188-20151226234449/@comment-452-20151228003057

Speedit wrote:

There is the issue of a user filing a counter-notice in a American civil court (which is possible even if you do not use DMCA) because of the allegation of copyright infringement - which would result in harm and wasted time for the Wikia legal team and the restoration of the content if the user can prove that it's fairuse, the work is original or there is evidence to disprove a violation or monetary losses.

As we have agreed from before @452, the community team are not lawyers - they provide support to the community. So them making decisions on infringement is not conducive to a better domain. Local mods can act to deal with infringement pre-emptively and police the Terms of Use - but Wikia staff doing so leads to that issue of repercussions from litigating contributors who are on the target end of the barrel. Claiming that we "have agreed" about that is like claiming we "agree" that the sky is blue.

No-one is saying that "community team are lawyers".

Wikia employs many people, some are community support, some are programmers, and some are lawyers.

Wikia's lawyers write the Terms of Use, and advise Wikia how to to best obey laws such as COPPA and DMCA, and Wikia Community Support follows their legal advice, which includes turning a blind eye to copyright infringement and telling users who ask about copyright issues that they cannot give them legal advice.

You appear to also be making the claim that if Wikia removes something, the users who contributed that content can litigate against Wikia, which is complete and utter nonsense.

Wikia can delete anything, at any time. They are not obligated to host anything, and there are no "repercussions" if they delete something.

If Wikia delete something, there is absolutely no reason for "the Wikia legal team" to get involved, and no obligation for them to restore something "if the user can prove that it's fairuse, the work is original or there is evidence to disprove a violation or monetary losses."

Even if it wasn't for common sense dictating that, the TOU specifically addresses those things: You understand and agree that others may, but are not obligated to, edit, delete or remove (without notice) any content from the Service, for any reason or no reason.

The Site is not and shall not function as an archive. We have no liability to you or any other person for loss, damage, or destruction to your content.

The Company may terminate your account, delete your profile and any content or information that you have posted on the Service and/or prohibit you from using or accessing the Service for any reason, or no reason, at any time in its sole discretion, with or without notice.