For copyright infringement, the statute of limitations is 3 years. See 17 U.S.C. 507. Your friend doesn't have anything to worry about.Back in 2002 my friend used their computer to post two chapters of a book to a fan forum for review purposes. They remembered they did that and asked me if they think they could be sued for it now. I didn't really know, so I decided to ask here.
Isn't there a statute of limitations on that kind of thing anyway?
The state is TX
Well the chapters were posted to a newsgroup, and they weren't able to get it taken down for a while because they had used an invalid email to post. We finally found the removal request form for google that allows you to do it even if you can't access the email that it was posted from anymore and sent in the request today.For copyright infringement, the statute of limitations is 3 years. See 17 U.S.C. 507. Your friend doesn't have anything to worry about.
For copyrights, the statute of limitation starts running from when the cause of action first accrues. Since this was a single infringing act -- posting the work in the first place -- the cause of action accrued when the first posting occured. The fact that it remained posted does not restart the statute of limitations. Now, if your friend did some affirmative action that caused the reposting of the work, then that likely WOULD restart the clock -- but posting once will not restart the clock.Well the chapters were posted to a newsgroup, and they weren't able to get it taken down for a while because they had used an invalid email to post. We finally found the removal request form for google that allows you to do it even if you can't access the email that it was posted from anymore and sent in the request today.
I was concerned that since the material was technically available online for all this time that the 'clock' might start ticking only after it's removed. I'm really very concerned about this because it wouldn't be fair for someone's life to be ruined over something like that, especially after all this time.
Thank you for the information. It's really helpful.For copyrights, the statute of limitation starts running from when the cause of action first accrues. Since this was a single infringing act -- posting the work in the first place -- the cause of action accrued when the first posting occured. The fact that it remained posted does not restart the statute of limitations. Now, if your friend did some affirmative action that caused the reposting of the work, then that likely WOULD restart the clock -- but posting once will not restart the clock.