Lars Aronsson wrote:
Here is one method: Do nothing until the copyright owner presses charges.
Well, "pressing charges" is a bit late in the game. Under the DMCA, an ISP has a "safe harbor" against copyright violations by users, so long as there is a "takedown" policy in place. Upon the receipt of a proper written complaint, I'm required to take down the disputed material. If the person who posted it wants to make a proper written response claiming to have the right to the material, then I can put it back up pending those two parties suing each other, but my liability is limited.
However, we have other concerns that extend beyond mere legal liability.
First, we want to have a solid reputation for the intrinsic reason that we want our encyclopedia to be a good one, well respected, and useful. We don't want to get the reputation of "the so-called encyclopedia that really just stole articles from all over the web."
Second, we want potential licensees to have a level of comfort about the content. Print publishers will not have the protection of the DMCA ISP safe harbor provisions, and so they will desire to have a stronger defense than a laissez-faire attitude on our part could provide.
--Jimbo