Hey all, I'm sure this has been asked before but I couldn't find the answer when I searched around. What are the actual legalities surrounding providing access to anime which is hosted elsewhere? I'm sure you've all seen the type of website I mean, where you watch episodes of anime which are hosted on websites like veoh, youtube, etc. Are you actually breaking the law by giving people a place to view it? I am more interested in whether its illegal or not, rather than "you won't get caught" because I don't want to attempt anything which may be illegal. Thanks Dan
Anime sites are an interesting legal issue. The short answer is yes, it is illegal for you to show people anime. Even hotlinking to or embedding videos hosted on other websites is still violating copyright law. Youtube or the real host would get into more trouble than you though, since they're the ones actually hosting it. Just so you know though, youtube has really been fighting anime hosting lately for whatever reason. A lot of videos are taken down quickly, so you would have to stay on your toes. If you were still a little interested, the majority of anime companies aren't concerned with it. Most of the time, the popularity of fansubs are what get their manga or anime licensed and sold in America. Hope that this helps.
YouTube is taking down a lot of anime because several of the copyright holders for anime have been on a recent tear about getting their content removed. YouTube is legally protected under the DCMA because they have a registered agent with the US Copyright Office to address such claims. Failure to remove that content at the request of the copyright holder would result in a loss of their legal protection and then $#!^ would really hit the fan for them. Most small sites that embed YouTube videos are not protected under DCMA. The two main reasons (though not the only ones) are that these sites have not registered an agent with the USCO and that the episodes are embedded by the website owner/master (unlike YouTube which relies solely on user uploaded content). If you don;'t want to do anything illegal, then don't do it.