Social Networking and Copyright Laws

So from the class discussions and the posts that people have been posting it seems that Facebook has run into some issues pertaining to privacy, copyright infringement, and other issues involving marketing/advertising companies illegally using content from user pages. With that being said I got the idea of trying to research how the law may interact or conflict with the use of social networking sites.

I Googled "Social Networking and Copyright" which led me to a very useful link right at the top of the list. This link: http://technology.findlaw.com/articles/00006/010966.html gives a very informative account of laws and how it deals with social networking in regards to copyright infringement.

The most interesting thing I found is that there is a statute that protects the site itself from any responsibility as to what users post. So in situations where a users my be uploading data, whether it be photos or music, which could be in violation of copyright laws the site itself is not at fault. The fault falls on the user, which I can see but I found it interesting that the site itself is clear of being held accountable. I would figure that they can't control what a user does but you'd think they could monitor it which I would think make them some what accountable.