Court Finds Web Hosts Liable For Counterfeit Sales By Web Sites
from the bad-precedents dept
While a US court last year (correctly) found that eBay is not liable for counterfeit goods sold by users, a recent court case won by Louis Vuitton surprisingly found that a web hosting company could be found liable, if a site hosted by the company sells counterfeit goods. The court finds the site guilty of both contributory copyright infringement and contributory trademark infringement, claiming that the host knows about the infringement due to notices from Louis Vuitton, without explaining how the hosting firm could possibly know if the complaints were legit or not (or whether the goods being sold were counterfeit or not). In a bit of a scary connecting of the dots, the court suggests that because the web host was notified, and because it could then disable the accounts, it's now liable as well. That creates a huge chilling effect for web hosts -- as it encourages them to basically shut off any website based on any accusation of selling counterfeit goods. If web hosts don't do that, they may face significant liability. There's nothing wrong with companies going after the actual sellers of counterfeit goods -- but going after the web host (and winning!) sets a dangerous precedent.
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Filed Under: counterfeit, liability, web hosts
Companies: louis vuitton
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Sweet!
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So who hosts www.louisvuitton.com ?
hmmm - looks like it registered with networksolutions
and hosted with RWT RagingWire Telecommunications
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Oh, and I hope the courts go further and put liability on anyone that is informed the next time, including any local municipalities where the web host, company and owners are located. Maybe then they will see how ludicrous it all is. But it's France I'm sure, and we all know they are more backwards that the U.S. Congress!
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In the US?
This needs to get appealed.
Stupid stupid judge. Complete failure to have any forward thinking ability at all.
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Re: In the US?
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Re: In the US?
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Re: In the US?
The web hosts are allowing illegal activities to be conducted through there servers. They are completely liable.
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Why stop there?
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