im starting a new big media sharing site with videos audios and pictures. is it legal if users will upload music mp3s or official videoclips ? what about shows shown on tv ?
This is the copywriting forum, which sounds very similar to copyright which I think you're after, and this topic would be better posted in the Legal Issues forum at http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44. In answer to your question, yes, in most countries (possibly all countries of any significance), it is still illegal to publish copyrighted content that has been submitted by a user. Large video sites like Youtube have moderators that remove such content when an intellectual property claim is made by the copyright owner.
well there is this big site in my country that has lots of mp3s submitted by users ... so they aren't allowed to show those kind of files ? they even have a partnership with another website selling mp3 to show some mp3 ads ... ???????
It depends on what country you are in, and from there several other things. For example, in the US if everything is usergenerated then you can have a site like that provided that you comply with the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA (all content is user generated, you have a registered contact to have infringing material removed, you do not profit from the infringing content, the site is not used mostly for infringing material, you remove infringing material quickly when a copyright holder requests it, etc...). Other countries do not recognize the distinction between user generated content and owner submitted content. Some countries say you are not infringing if you do not host the material (embedded, link to, or torrents) but most countries don't care whether the site actually hosts the content or just allows access to it. Just because there are other sites (even big sites) that do it does not mean it is legal. It could just be that nobody has bothered to sue yet (maybe they want to be sure the site has money before they sue, maybe they don't know about it, maybe they have other fish to fry at the moment, etc...). Without knowing the country, the most likely answer is that you could be sued for such content. Whether you would just get sued or they would simply request you remove the offending material depends on who it is and what they feel like doing that day (some days they might feel like it is cheaper and easier just to request removal, some days they may want to make an example out of people).
i'm from romania. i did some research and it looks like if someone else uploads the content its no problem.but if the person that owns the respective file asks me, the sites' webmaster to delete it from the site, i should obey. also, disclaimer and terms of service are required to absolve me of any rights for the files submitted. thanks for the replies. this thread can be closed now. thanks again.