Hello, On most of the biggie video websites, users submit videos from popular TV shows, sports channels, music artists, etc. This must be copyrighted material. And these videos are usually among the most popular ones. Can any legal issues arise in the future? Coz, as of now, any site is putting any video freely and re-distributing it too. Even if any big media company tries to take action, I think it is nearly impossible to stop this video revolution. I only wish to discuss the legal issues from a webmaster's point of view.
Basically, as long as the website complies on removing copyrighted material when the companies complain, then it should not be a problem. This is, of course, if the hosting site is unaware of the exact things users are posting.
youtube hosts like so much copyrighted material and they are like one of google's biggest clients. same thing with myspace.
Are we as webmasters in any danger or threat if we embed youtube and videos from other websites which offer embed codes? Where do google and myspace come in the picture? Please clarify
Most likely not they will usually file a takedown notice (DMCA)to the one hosting the file ie Youtube.
on most times , till date ... tv channels and tv companies benefits from the extra advertising they get . In my experience , we have seen the official websites of the tv channels start hosting videos and still they do not complain to other sites doing the same , because they get free publicity . As someone above said , as long as the site owner complies to removal of the content on report , there should not be any problem.
However, this is no guarantee that the webmaster is safe from any legal action. A webmaster is responsible for the content on their sites, so they need to know where it came from and that they have permission to use the copyrighted material. Hiding behind a "I'll remove it if you tell me to" attitude won't work. It's your responsibility to ensure that you may use the image/video/content. It's not the copyright holders responsibilty to go round trying to enforce their copyright... rest assurred that if they find your site is hosting their stolen content, that most of them will take legal action. *This is about copyright in general. I don't have much experience with the videos, but I'm guessing that hosting copyrighted TV episodes and the like, or making it available/easy to find, could get you into trouble. Take the Grokster, Napster etc. cases into consideration. Though they weren't websites as such, they made it easy for people to trade/find copyrighted material. A website example would be the Sharereactor site. They hosted links to P2P downloads of copyrighted software etc. and got shut down. I don't know if they were sued though.*
I agree to the copyright thing. But surely the biggies like youtube and others know what they are doing. Music videos, sports channel videos, tv show videos are all available and the codes are there for any site to put. What will you say? Will the webmaster get sued because he/she embedded a code via a video on youtube? There must be thousands of sites and blogs. In case of blogs, it will be the blog sites who are the owners. So what if you put a copyrighted music video using a youtube code on your blogspot blog?
Don't most sites have a disclaimer where they say "we host content but the uploaders are liable for copyright blah blah blah" and then the uploader generally embeds the video/file on to their site and say "I'm not liable - My site doesn't have any illegal content on it!" so in the end the video seems to get taken down but no legal action is taken! But crusader is 100% right, you'll never be completely safe from legal action!
@ Crusader : Megaupload , Rapidshare and hundreds of such clones thrive and have a business model based on letting people upload such videos , and even porn and warez . I would belive that would be more illegal .... not fansites per se. How many real life personal videos and office documents do you find being shared on RS / imageshack ? On the other hand , forget videos ..... screencaps have been on the internet for almost 10 years now , some of the sites are made just with galleries consisting on screencaps , magazine scans etc . I know hundreds of such sites with multiple dmoz listings etc . come to think of it www.TV.com has images of tv serials and shows and i dont think those images are taken by CNET's photographers nor they are paid royalty per image . but thats just a personal opinion , not documented proof
That doesn't mean that it's legal to do so nor that they won't run the risk of being sued for copyright infringement/distributing copyrighted content. It all depends on how far the copyright holder is willing to take things. It's a toss up on what risks you are willing to take. If you allow users to upload stuff to your site and you don't control what they upload you run a large risk of running into legal issues at one stage or the other. The same goes for using copyrighted content without permission. A "terms of service" and "usage policy" goes a long way in providing some protection, but that's not much. You still need to act extremely quickly on reports of copyrighted content uploaded to your site, and you need to prove that you didn't know that the content was copyrighted, otherwise you might also be legally responsible. In my opinion the risks involved isn't worth it... Once agains, DMOZ listings etc. doesn't mean that those sites are legally using the images. They've all been lucky in not getting sued by copyright holders of the various content. As far as CNET's site goes, most TV shows have "press packages" they send out to major news sites etc. Those packages generally contain images/screenshots/information that can be used on sites. So I'm very sure that CNET will have permission to use the images they are using.
I believe the law is clear about copyrights, you may make a record for your own personal viewing but putting them on the web would amount to broadcast which would invitablely be against the law to do so. Youtube and others hosting uploaded video is just riding on a very thinline there. I can't quite remember but I recall something that if you put up a few seconds clips, it may still be within the regulation but nothing more. The last time I wrote in to my TV Station for a recording of one of its show, they wanted me to sign a guarantee and acknowledgement that it would be for personal viewing and nothing more. I cannot lend the tape to my friends or show it to people not in my immediate family.
So what will be the best videos to use for putting on a website and which videos should be avoided. Assuming, the webmaster is picking up from a popular site like youtube, etc. Please add and update the below list with each post To use Submissions of videos from people, (shot by themselves) To avoid Tv shows videos What about sports videos which feature popular sportstars but do not have any logo?
I would think the only videos you can put online is by the copyright owners themselves. So to prevent yourself from any sticky issues with the law, just insist your members put up videos which they have taken themselves with their video cameras. If the sports videos are taken by your members while attending a sport event then it be okay.
BS. It's all about limiting your liability, which Rapidshare does in the very first section of their FAQ: They don't enforce those rules, of course. But they put them up as a C.Y.A. precaution. Being located outside of the U.S. (thus distancing themselves from 99% of the copyrighted material they distribute) doesn't hurt either.
Therein lies the rub. You can have a FAQ, Terms of service or Acceptable use policy in place to try to limit your liability, but in the end it is up to you to enforce those rules. If your site hosts copyright material and one of the big companies want to go after you they will definitely hold you accountable, despite your policies, since you didn't enforce them.