[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by spellbanisher

My guess is that this has never unintentionally happened.

I don't think intent matters.

I just don't see how a person could end up, word for word, posting the exact same comment as someone else did without intending to do it.

Given how short most of them are, I can easily see it. There just aren't that many ways to say the same thing over and over, without eventual duplication. You've never read a post in the plethora of pro/anti copyright discussions on here over the years and had deja-vu?

First off, copyright infringement is a a civil, not criminal, offense. Legislation like SOPA is really only geared towards commercial goods. Unless you are monetizing the comment, you are safe.

Have you seen what the civil penalties are for copyright infringement? Not to mention that many forums don't draw revenue from comments directly, but can be argued to do so indirectly via ad space, etc. That's how the pirate bay made their revenue, wasn't it?

Second, the only way you'd get caught is if the person was actively looking for identical comments. Who would do that?

If things "progress" to where the hosting site can be held liable, do you think sites would be willing to take the risk?

The only point I'm trying to make is this. If you really think about it, is there really all that much difference between sites that allow users to upload files and sites that allow users to post comments? Both are potentially at risk for the content they host to infringe on copyright.

The only obvious distinction I can find is that files (music/movies/ebooks) are much larger than comments. However, I'm not aware of any difference outlined in copyright law based on the size of the copyrighted work in question, is there?