Dear All,

There has been a few threads of late regarding sharing of software manuals etc.

this has provoked some discussion amongst the moderators regarding copyright infringement, potential consequences for Planning Planet, and appropriate response from moderators.

Below summarises the key points:

1) Moderators have no way of knowing if the relevant documents are copyright protected or not.
2) Even if they are, offering to email such a document, or posting a link to a file-sharing site is not strictly against the Forum rules as written
3) There is a potential exposure to Planning Planet of legal action similar to the copyright theft case brought against Pirate Bay recently.
4) Planning Planet exists to facilitate sharing of knowledge and experience, not to facilitate copyright theft.
5) No guidance from PP Admin to date

Based on this, I’m going to follow the below procedure as a temporary measure until PP Admin’s position is clarified:

-Any poster offering to distribute, or posting links to, potentially copyrighted material will be asked to confirm that no copyright infringement is occuring.
-If the poster is unwilling / unable to confirm this, the thread will be deleted.


I’m open to suggestions if people can think of a better way of dealing with this.

Cheers,

G