I'm just copying and pasting important copyright laws information from COOLER extracted from the original thread:

My apologies for the length of this but there is a lot of misinformation here that simply must be corrected.

a special aside to Dark Matter... I don't know where you are getting your information from but rarely have I seen a series of posts where every piece of information is totally wrong. If you want to discuss copyright issues I suggest very strongly that you take a look at the information at... http://www.copyright.gov/laws/,http://www.copyright.gov/faq.html, and http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html before making statements that are not only erroneous but dangerous if some innocent were to read & act on them accordingly.

Post #29 "First off you got to take the person to court before you publicly accuse them of stealing from you and present your case before a judge before taking action against them."

FALSE... Current copyright law (especially the Digital Millenium Copyright Act & the No Electronic Theft Act) is written in such a way as to make it easier for an individual to protect themselves without having to involve the legal system. Taking a situation to court is usually a last resort, after all other courses of action have been exhausted.

Post #30 "And furthermore you have not proven to anyone here that your textures were not ripped off from someplace else possibly an offline magizine so nor have you proven that you can leagally copieright your stuff I see no copyright office number here."

FALSE... SteffyZZ has filed a proper DMCA certificate of infringement. This document, sworn to under penalty of perjury, places the burden of proof on the other merchant to prove that no violation exists.

Post #32 "Also note it is not legal for renderosity to bann or drop a merchant without a court outcome that person can sue renderosity for damagages even if he is guilty because he was denied due process by law over an accusation."

FALSE... Renderosity is enforcing its TOS & merchants' agreement NOT acting as a law enforcement agency.

Post #33 "if you do not take your stuff to a copieright office and get it properly copyrighted anyone can copyright your stuff and steal it right out from uder you, publishing on the web does not give you any protections."

Post #34... "What really pisses me off is that alot of people don't copyuright there stuff even tho they lie and say they have because they are too lazy or to stupid to go do it."

FALSE... A Copyright does NOT have to be formally filed in order for a creation to be protected. "Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device"
(http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html).

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Post #35 "if you accuse someone you do not have the right to take action against them without a court outcome., Why? because it is against the law to deny a person due process of law, no person can be deemed guilty outside the athority of the law."

"taking action based on an accusation is against the law and can be prosecuted by the damaged person in form of a lawsuit when income or funds are lost meaning the store that was taken down."

"It is up to the damaged person claiming losses to take the thief to court before any action can be taken in thier behalf under the law, because No one can be deemed guilty outside the athority of the law."

ALL FALSE... as stated above copyright law is specifically written in order to make it possible to resolve a situation WITHOUT involving the courts. Additionally copyright law is primarily civil, not criminal, law. "Innocent until proven guilty" & as well as "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" do not necessarily apply in a civil trial.

Post #36 "Also note renderosity by acting as judge jury and excecutioner is outside the athhority of the law. assuming the role of a copyright court."

FALSE... Renderosity is not only enforcing its TOS & merchants agreement but is complying with the law by removing an infringing product. Under the terms of the DMCA once a proper claim of infringement is received Renderosity must "expeditiously disable access" to the material in
question or they may be held liable for damages.

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Post #44 "This really can't go on any longer and it's time to take a proactive rather than reactive stance. It's not fair to the people that are being stolen from, to your customers, and it's giving Renderosity a bad name."

Post #45 "I have been amazed by the humdrum way in which renderosity admins handle (or more correctly, do not) some members actively using and displaying images using products they clearly haven't bought or recieved as (legitimate) gifts, and through my own experience I have been inclined to let most of these go, but renderosity must act proactively in a case such as this or else the whole system is farsical."

Renderosity cannot act proactively to enforce a 3rd party copyright. In fact they cannot act at all unless they are properly notified by the original copyright holder or a designated agent, that a potential infringement exists.