Legal Issues Examined
Well, the initial legal review is in, and it looks promising. Essentially, Yahoo addresses this issue by NOT specifically addressing it. They do not claim ownership of the material, so that is one point in our favor. They do prohibit reproducing the content for commercial gain, but that doesn't really apply here. The content of the posts is actually the intellectual property of the posting parties, who grant a license to Yahoo to distribute and essentially do whatever they want with the content. So, unless someone who posted on the old club wants to take issue with you because they did not specifically grant you a license to distribute their content, I don't think you have anything to worry about. Take a look at the TOS agreement again, specifically item #23. This is a disclaimer that you should consider adapting for the new site. My lawyer mentioned that as long as you post something stating your willingness to remove any material that anyone feels infringes on their property rights, and follow through in a timely matter, you have very little to worry about.
Hope this helps.
-Mike
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