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This is complicated.
90% of the people on this board are angry and are going to tell you that the forum owner is liable for everything because they are mad that somebody posted their entire members area on a forum.
But realistically speaking, a forum isn't liable for what its users post, as long as it responds to proper take-down notifications. This is protected by both the DMCA and the Communications Decency Act.
But even if we look at this, not only may a forum not be liable for what its users post, but it may not even have any obligations under the DMCA to remove such posts. If a user posts content on a file-sharing or video-hosting website, and then posts links to such content on the forum, the forum may not have to remove those links because it is not hosting the actual content.
Then there are other arguments, such as the forum owner encouraging people to upload content to third party websites and then post the links on his/her forum. Then it could be argued that he is encouraging infringement and further benefiting from it financially. But you would have to sue the forum owner in court, and that forum owner would have to be located in the United States and would have to be hosting his forum in the United States in order for any judgement to be effective. And all of this would cost a lot of money, and carries substantial risk.
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