I was wondering if I opened a website that stored and played copyrighted videos, and placed it on a server in the Netherlands, could I get sued here in the USA. The general terms for the site would be that if a company contacts us to remove a video, we would be willing to comply. Also we would place in the terms that we are not responsible for any content users post.
Sure, look at how many times youtube has been sued for user uploaded videos. A lot of it is really going to depend on the overall content of your site. If 99% of your videos aren't copyright infringing, and you remove the 1% that are when notified, your risk of being sued for damages is a lot different than a site that is a haven for uploading copyrighted content - however, there is always going to be some risk, even if it is very small. Just because you are sued, it doesn't mean they will win, but it does mean you would likely need to spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees - fees that you wouldn't likely be awarded even if you win.
Not being a US individual or company might have something to do with it. It might also be that they have a big legal budget to fight lawsuits. Youtube is still operating even after the billion dollar lawsuit was filed by viacom. PirateBay operated for a long time - and their trial is ongoing right now.
So basically what your saying is that if I hire some monkey from the netherlads to keep the domain, manage the site, send me the profits and make it "his business" then i'm free and clear?
No, that's not what I am saying. You are talking about setting up a sham front - and do you really think somebody you pay a few dollars isn't going to put the blame on you if they are sued? If it was that easy, then PirateBay wouldn't be in the legal situation they now are.
Ok... so the only way to do it would be to: 1. Buy an island. 2. Setup Internet access. 3. Setup servers. 4. What should be happening is someone should start an online site and get approval from all the networks to stream their content for a share of the money. Then just put 3 - 30 second ads once every 15 minutes ( You buy cable or satellite and get 5 minutes of commercials ). Hulu had this started, but they only partnered with on network . These companies need to wake up and realize that the only way to stop piracy is to band together and give their content away for free. I wouldn't be asking this question if they actually did something for a change!