if a facebook page allows people to upload pictures, who can get in trouble for copyright?

[dan]

Who gets in trouble for copyright? The people that take and upload the pictures, or the facebook page owner?

[SPYDERBLADE]

The only person who can upload pictures to an account is the user who created that account. So the uploader, and the account user are the same. That person would get in trouble if the picture (or video) is copyrighted.

[Colinc]

The Facebook page owner will be held legally responsible for content posted to the site. they are obliged to check the legality of uploaded material the same way Youtube have to, and force its' removal, and to ensure users do not repeatedly post illegal material. Both the owner and the poster can be prosecuted, but the law holds more serious penalties for anyone hosting illegal material than it does for individual posters. This includes some very long prison sentences.

[Tim]

Facebook, the uploader, and the page owner can all get in trouble.

However, current law, does not hold Facebook or the page owner responsible unless they are aware copyrighted content is being uploaded.

In general, that awareness comes from someone filing a complaint. If someone contacts the page owner, and tells them that there is copyrighted material on their page, and the page owner refuses to act in a timely matter, they could also get sued for copyright infringement.

Facebook relies on the "report" button for users to report copyrighted material, and they generally respond almost instantly.



The uploader can get in trouble for copyright infringement regardless of whether or not anyone reports the content.


Edit:
ColinC is not correct. The law requires that people take "due diligence" to prevent copyright infringement, but that standard is open to a lot of interpretation. In general, the courts have held individuals to a much lower standard of diligence than corporations, and unless an individual is encouraging copyright infringement, simply having copyrighted content on a page, without knowledge that it is copyrighted, does not constitute a lack of due diligence. The page owner must be aware, (usually by a third party or copyright owner filing notice with them,) that there is copyrighted material on their page. They can only legally be held responsible if they ignore that notice.

Also, civil copyright infringement can never result in jail time, and is always considered a matter of tort (lawsuits.) Criminal copyright infringement requires knowingly, and intentionally committing copyright infringement for the purpose of profit. An example would be selling bootleg CD's or DVD's. Recently, in the case of Megaupload, it held that by generating revenue via advertising, while giving away copyrighted content for free, also constitutes criminal copyright infringement, but that case is not concluded.

In general, unless you are directly profiting from copyright infringement, it will never lead to jail time, but the fines are incredibly steep. Up to $150,000 +fees per image, movie, or song, for willful infringement, and $30,000 plus fees for unintentional copyright infringement per work.