A few web site questions for first thing on a sunday

[Plonking]

Hey all,

I have a few questions that I'd like to clear up -

1. I have quite a few documenty type things on my site and they are all in .doc format. Is there any legal restriction on how many of these I can have on the site at any one time? I've taken them off temporarily. It's a non-profit site and stuff.

2. Same goes for .pdf files. How many of these can i use before getting into some kinda trouble, or am i safe?

I just wanna make sure, seeing as my counter stats report that microsoft have been looking at the site! eek! lol its just their scans of the net, but i'd like to be certain! a friend of a friend at uni (a guy who does computing stuff) reinstalled windows XP on his pc, but had genuinely lost his cd key. he downloaded a key generator from the net and was dumb enough to leave it on his home filespace on the uni computers. he's now being fined £thousa nds!

thanks for your help y'all!

Pl

[Xaccers]

Um, what exactly do you think is dodgy about having word documents or acrobat documents?

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by Plonking

Hey all,

I have a few questions that I'd like to clear up -

1. I have quite a few documenty type things on my site and they are all in .doc format. Is there any legal restriction on how many of these I can have on the site at any one time? I've taken them off temporarily. It's a non-profit site and stuff.

2. Same goes for .pdf files. How many of these can i use before getting into some kinda trouble, or am i safe?

I just wanna make sure, seeing as my counter stats report that microsoft have been looking at the site! eek! lol its just their scans of the net, but i'd like to be certain! a friend of a friend at uni (a guy who does computing stuff) reinstalled windows XP on his pc, but had genuinely lost his cd key. he downloaded a key generator from the net and was dumb enough to leave it on his home filespace on the uni computers. he's now being fined £thousa nds!

thanks for your help y'all!

Pl

You can have as many word docs/acrobat documents as you want, and yes, he was/is dumb.

[Halcyon]

There is absolutely no problem having word documents and pdf files on the net.
If its your own work in them it belongs to you and there is nothing anyone can do about that.
Maybe if you had a word document with plans for a terrorist attack or a PDF file full of information on cracking into Microsofts computers or something then you might be investigated, but if I was you I wouldnt be worried at all for what you are doing is perfectly fine, just storing normal files on the web.

[Plonking]

Hey again,

That's cool ! Thanks for the help - I didn't want to make any stupid mistakes with stuff like that. I know it was a silly question, but I try my best to be as sure as I can be that I know 'where my site is at' with regards to those kind of legal related things and what have you. I've put a load of work into it, and i don't wanna get caught out by anything unexpected!

cheers y'all!

[Alanmelon]

I'm sure all of the above applies, just as long as the content of the files is not copyrighted. You should gain permission of the person who has ownership of the content if this is the case.

[Plonking]

Cheers... people send me stuff, I put it up on the site, and, if they change their minds and want it removed, I do as they ask

[punky]

Originally Posted by Bifta

he was/is dumb.

I would have thought he was covered under free speech. You can go round telling people how to make bombs etc, but only becomes illegal when you do it, I thought.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by punky

I would have thought he was covered under free speech. You can go round telling people how to make bombs etc, but only becomes illegal when you do it, I thought.

True, actually offering the tools I don't see as a problem, so long as they don't contain any code ripped from the original program. But then, if he'd offered a couple of kilo's of semtex for sale on a web site, he'd probably also find himself the wrong side of the law.

[Plonking]

Actually, I remember seeing a film about a similar thing - it was, apparently, 'based on a true story' - I can't remember the name of the film, but basically this book publisher gets sued for producing a book that is a 'guide' to how to become a good hitman. The book was used by someone who then became a hitman to carry out some nasty murders.

It was set in the US, so, naturally, the whole 'free speech' side of things initially blocked the publisher from being sued. However, the lawyers managed to convince everyone that the book incited people to murder.

I wasn't entirely convinced by this, and it really is a very, very thorny issue in both legal and moral terms. Presumably Microsoft, with all their high-priced lawyers, have convinced courts that having such tools incite people to use them. It's also possible that somewhere in the EULA, that most people agree to without reading, it makes you agree not to use stuff like that or get in trouble! Patents may also be involved somehow, they normally are

I'm no expert and thinking out loud here, so feel free to correct me hehe