Below text was copied from Stanford University Library, Copyright and Fair Use.
Transferring Information to and From a Website
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Copyright infringement occurs whenever copyrighted material is copied from or posted to a website without authorization from the copyright owner. This section discusses the various ways that information can be transferred between your site and its users and the copyright conflicts that may arise with each.
1. Posting Information on a Website
Posting involves a user sending information from the user's computer to the website (sometimes referred to as "uploading"). Once posted, others can view or copy the material. If your site does not offer users a chance to post material, you can skip this section.
EXAMPLE: A member of a discussion group posts a chapter from a John Grisham book to the group's chat room on the Web, making it available for others to copy.
While the person who uploaded the material is the actual infringer, whoever maintains the site can be held liable for allowing the material to be posted at the site. As with any unauthorized material, the wisest approach to dealing with unauthorized uploads at a site is to remove it quickly or disable access to the material pending resolution of the dispute. (See Section A.)
A site permitting uploading of material can post a notice prohibiting any unauthorized activities and require that perpetrators pay for any damages caused by such activities. The notice should be placed prominently so that persons performing uploads will see it. Alternatively, the site may include a "click to accept" agreement (often called a clickwrap agreement) setting forth similar terms. A clickwrap agreement is a page or window that appears before the user is allowed to perform a certain function (in this case, an upload) which states the terms of an agreement. The user will not be allowed to proceed until he has clicked in a box to indicate he has read and accepts the agreement.
Below is an example of a "click to accept" agreement intended to prohibit unauthorized postings.
Uploading Restrictions
User agrees not to post:
any materials protected under copyright, trademark or trade secret laws unless with the express authorization of the owner; or
any material likely to defame or invade the privacy of any individual.
User agrees to indemnify the owners of the site and their affiliates and employees from any liability (including attorney fees) related to User's violation of this agreement.
CLICK TO ACCEPT
statesWebsite notices – absent some sign of a acceptance by the user -- may not be enforceable in all states although ”click to accept” agreements are generally enforceable throughout the U.S. As a practical matter, however, a notice or agreement requiring a person who commits an illegal activity to pay your attorney fees is worthless if the person has no funds. Nevertheless, it's worthwhile to include some form of notice or "click to accept" agreement on your website. It may deter some users from making illegal uploads, and it may help to show your diligence in trying to prevent them.
2. Taking Information From a Website
Just as users can sometimes post information onto a website, in the reverse process a user may take material from the website and transfer it to the user's computer. This is typically done either by downloading or by copying. Many sites are set up for users to download material. Shareware sites, for example, allow users to download software they want by clicking on a downloadable file, which will then be transferred onto the user's computer. Another way of obtaining material from websites is simply by selecting text, copying and pasting it into a word processing document on the user's computer. Strictly speaking this is not downloading, but the effect is the same. The user has obtained material from the website and copied it onto her own computer.
EXAMPLE: A visitor to a Nirvana website that posts unauthorized copies of Kurt Cobain lyrics copies them and saves them in a Microsoft Word document on her computer.
a. Unauthorized Copying
If you don't offer material to download at your site, your main concern isn't whether you'll infringe someone else's copyright, but whether users will copy your material without your permission. Particularly if your site contains copyrightable works by outside authors--for instance, if you publish a Web magazine--you'll want to do everything you can to prevent users from unauthorized copying of the material. One common method (though not necessarily an effective one) is to prominently display a copyright notice on some or all of your Web pages clearly stating that the material is protected by copyright.
To deal with the fact that many users may copy information anyway, one option is to accept this fact and include in your copyright notice a prohibition on any commercial use of the material. In addition, you can require that the copyright notice must always be included with the material, so anyone who reads it knows who created it. Many webmasters are willing to accept some limited copying by users for personal use, especially if the copies show who originally generated the material.
EXAMPLE: Nolo.com, the publisher of this book, maintains a website with extensive selfhelp legal information. Since Nolo's goal is to empower people to take care of their own legal affairs, it is willing to accept some copying of the material at its site, with some limitations. Its copyright notice, which can be accessed from nearly every page, reads in part as follows:
Nolo's Copyright Policy
Nolo provides the information on this site to be read by anyone, but retains the copyright on all text and graphics. To use this information in any other way, you must strictly follow these guidelines.
Use by Individuals
As long as it is for your own personal use only, you may print copies of this information, store the files on your computer, and use hypertext links to reference the information.
However, if you publish material from the Nolo site on your website, you must follow the guidelines below, "Use by All Websites. "
Licensing and Reprint Rights
If you wish to license or reprint any of the information on this site for non-Internet use (for example, as part of an article, book or pamphlet), contact us at:
Webmaster@Nolo.com.
Use by All Websites
If you wish to place any information on this site on your site, Nolo hereby grants you limited permission for this in exchange for your adherence to these guidelines:
Sample Chapters
Sample chapters may not be used other than for personal use, that is, you may print copies of this information, store the files on your computer, and use hypertext links to reference the information. To obtain permission to use a sample chapter in any other way, you must contact us at:
Webmaster@Nolo.com
Legal Encyclopedia Articles
You must not charge for the material used.
You may use no more than three Articles, FAQs, Auntie Nolo Questions & Answers, Legal Quizzes and/or Legal Dictionary entries on your site at any one time.
At the top of and in the same size font as text of the material used, you must display the Nolo website logo and this copyright notice:
"Copyright (c) Nolo.com 1999 " on each Article, FAQ, Auntie Nolo Question & Answer, Legal Quiz and/or Legal Dictionary entry.
You must include a link at the top of each Article, FAQ, Auntie Nolo Question & Answer, Legal Quiz and/or Legal Dictionary entry to the Nolo homepage at
http://www.nolo.com (for instance, by making "Nolo" in the copyright notice a link) in the same size type as the text of the material used.
You must send an email message to
Webmaster@Nolo.com with information about what content you are using and where the article appears.
We reserve the right to change the terms of and/or withdraw this permission at any time and for any reason.
If you take this more liberal approach, make sure that any contributors to your site who may retain copyright in their work understand and accept your policy. Otherwise, if they later discover that their article was copied, they might sue you for allowing their work to be infringed.
b. Unauthorized Downloading
The concept of unauthorized downloading may seem strange, considering that most sites that offer files for download are obviously consenting to the download. However, even if downloads are specifically allowed from your site, you still may have concerns over unauthorized uses of the downloaded material. For instance, if you offer free clip art for download at your site, you may want to prohibit users from selling the clip art, and limit their use to personal use. If the user violates the restriction, you may be able to sue for breach of contract. This approach has been successful in disputes based upon clip art and stock photos. Even if the agreement is not enforceable, its presence may defeat a claim of innocent infringement by the user.
A sample downloading restriction appears below. You can post it as a notice displayed where a downloader would clearly see it, or implement it as a "click to accept" agreement, as described in Section 1 above.
Downloading Restrictions
User agrees that the material provided for downloading is to be used solely for personal purposes such as on home computers and may not be reproduced, displayed or distributed for any commercial purposes.
CLICK TO ACCEPT
Let's be On the Lookout For Picture Kidnapping!! 
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