IANAL, but from my understanding of the DMCA Safe Habor provisions it could be very tricky to hold a host responsible for data stored on their servers unknowingly. However, once they find out about the file's illegality, they must act or then they become liable. Amazon is not immediately liable if someone uploads illegal files to S3.

My understanding is that you have to register a DMCA notification agent in order to be eligible for DMCA Safe Harbor: http://www.haynesboone.com/alerts/dmca-safe-harbor-protectio...

The GP just incriminated themselves now though I.e.

“The defendant installed software that they knew could be used to store illegal materials, proceeded to profit off it, and did not put any protections in place to try to limit this”

For some judges that’s all they’d need to hear. Amazon have lawyers and essentially an endless budget, processes and teams to defend their position and support law enforcement, they have no trouble defending themselves, but an individual could find themselves in a really tough position.

There needs to be a point at which one can reasonably determine that someone has done everything they possibly can, short of not running the node, to keep illegal content off of their machines. I don't think the only solution need be to abstain from using the system. This is an age-old problem, almost as old as the Internet itself.

Completely agree

IANAL, but these statements seem to fly in the face of the general requirement that a actor must have the requisite mens rea to commit a crime. There certainly are exceptions to the mens rea requirement, but it seems like if you're making a conclusory statement like "Yes, you could be held legally responsible.", then you should provide some reasoning for why that would be the case.

There's contributory infringement in copyright law, but copyright law is so far out of balance these days that I'm hesitant to draw an inference from it.

This otherwise sounds like worrying that you'll be charged with armed robbery because the robbers threw their gun onto your lawn while escaping the cops. Yeah, sure, that could happen, but only through a series of factual misunderstandings about who did what, not because you actually committed a crime.

Source?