Hello, I am currently developing a project which is, as I see it, a solution to poorly designed and managed free movie websites. Although, I have a few concerns and would appreciate some answers: I have heard stories of various movie portal websites, which merely linked to already available movies hosted on other websites, being shut down and faced with legal issues due to copyright infringement. As logic would have it: surely such prosecutions are more threat than action, as no actual copyrighted content is being hosted on such portal websites? Does anyone have any experience in this area and/or any useful observations of such legality? Thanks, Lee.
What you are looking for is information about contributory copyright infringement. Here is some info from the EFF, but it's going to vary from country to country: http://www.chillingeffects.org/piracy/faq.cgi#QID268
Thank you very much for this interesting and useful information. I understand that laws and such vary from nation to nation, however, I have been thinking I should purchase a server in Russia, China, Thailand or another country with little interest in the Western dominated movie industry and piracy. What do you think of this? Thanks, Lee.
That may prevent your site from being taken down, but that doesn't protect you from legal action unless you live in one of those countries yourself.