If I run a PPC campaign and use a well known companies televised commercial from a youtube video that takes users to a landing page where I harvest information what are some of the legal ramifications that can arise from this? Thank you for your time and help with this issue.
I'm guessing that basically NONE of that is legal. Whatsoever. First of, you're stealing a commercial video from another company (which means it has nothing to do with what you do), then you falsely get people to click said advertisment to have them come to your page, where you say you harvest information - I'm assuming, again, that you're either asking for it, or scraping FB and browser-cookies etc. for identifying info? Might be illegal as well, depends on what you harvest it for, and what you promise (if anything) for their participation (and, of course, whether or not you deliver said promise(s)). But, basically, what you do is illegal on many levels. Repercussions, on the other hand, are probably at worst very small. You might get slapped with a DMCA-notice, or your hosting shut down, but apart from that, nothing is probably gonna happen, unless you stole from a very big player (think Apple, Google, MS, or similar) that has the klout to find you and take you to court.
Lol - so there is a way around this. Go to google and do a search for whatever you are looking for. Then filter searches by usage rights. Some videos allow you to do what ever you would like with them. I hope this helps someone else