Website operators who allow the posting of user-generated content on their sites enjoy broad immunity from legal liability. This includes immunity from copyright violations if the site owner registers with the Copyright Office, does not encourage the copyright violations and takes down infringing content upon receiving notice from a copyright owner (see our post here for more information). There is also broad immunity from liability for other legal violations that may occur within user-generated content.

Maynard, Mass. - The New York Times Co. said on Wednesday that it has formed a new marketing partnership with online employment firm Monster Worldwide.

San Francisco - Zinio Systems, a provider of digital publishing services for books and magazines, announced on Tuesday that it has been acquired for an undisclosed sum by Gilvest, an investment group owned by entrepreneur David H. Gilmour.

This past weekend I was moderating a panel at CommunityNext, a smart event focused on everything about online communities coordinated by Noah Kagan.  The event was a fun gathering of extremely smart folks from some of the hottest online communities today - and panelists/speakers shared many great thoughts on topics ranging from how to be more awesome, to the genesis behind HotorNot.com.  Through the day, I took several notes and during the flight back to the east coast, started to aggregate the day into some central lessons about online communities gained from listening to many of the speakers, as well as looking at what is making many of the sites from attendees stand out.  Here's my list of 10 lessons that I took away from the event, as well as a few great sites that are worth visiting for further exploration:

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Yahoo on Thursday debuted a new service designed to make it easier for users and developers to create "mashups," or applications created by combining different Web-based services.

Reston, Va. - ComScore Networks, a provider of Internet audience measurement services, announced on Friday that it has partnered with Federated Media, which represents conversational media sites including Digg and BoingBoing, to create a new measurement system for blogs and community-driven sites.

San Francisco - Vizu, a developer of online polling technology for publishers, announced that it has raised $2.9 million in a new round of financing, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

San Mateo, Calif. - Bitpass, a four-year-old provider of online payment processing services, has announced that it is discontinuing operations, due to "circumstances beyond our control," CEO Matthew Graves wrote in an e-mail to customers.

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Internet giant Yahoo said on Friday that it has launched a new personal finance website, featuring tools and information focused on nine major areas such as banking, real estate and retirement.

Park City, Utah - RealNetworks on Thursday announced the launch of its new film and entertainment news site, Film.com, which will offer previews, movie trailers and coverage of TV and celebrity news. Originally founded in 1994 as a film commentary site, the re-launched version includes an editorial team from across the U.S.

McLean, Va. - Hoping to fight declining circulation and revenue, three major newspaper publishers, Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune, plan to jointly begin selling display ads for their Internet sites, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.