Think Before You Buy Sites Embedding Copyrighted Video!

1. Perfect 10 didn't "almost" sue Google. They did sue Google.

2. The case, as far as I can tell is not over, it has been sent from the Court of Appeal back to District Court for a ruling.

3. What the Court of Appeal has done was deny the injunction that Perfect 10 has obtained in District Court against Google. The Court of Appeal reversed the granting of that injunction and sent the case back to District Court. From what I can tell, I think it is premature to say Google has prevailed. Although they did defeat the injunction.

4. Your conclusion that video sharing does not fall under fair use is not based on this opinion, I am not sure where that statement comes from or why you think it is true.

 

How if life in USA but hosting in India ??

 

if we buy a warez server ?

 

Hi, I am about to launch a new TV software business and I am having some questions about the legal issue.

Basically I have bought a so-called internet Satellite TV software w/ resale right, which has a collection of over thousands of online TV streams plus many radio streams. And all those streams are almost identical taken from wwitv.com

I am new to this game, and the seller claims that it is 100% legal to sell such software. I also see this kind of Streaming TV software available everywhere on the net like ebay, clickbank, etc.

All the streams within the software are all seem to be "free stream" from misc. content provider.

My question is if it is really legal to sell a "TV" software which actually reboardcast many streams from so many major websites, ( some from BBC, CNBC, FOX, CNN , etc. )

If those are all "free Streams", does it mean that anyone can reboadcast it legally?

If it is not legal, how come wwitv.com can still board-cast those stream in their website for such a long period without any problem?

I also see all the other Satellite TV selling sites are carrying all those major station logos in their ad, is it OK to do that?

If you go to wwitv.com, you can see those streaming video within the window of their site, provided the original owner web link there. However, my software only has a list of Station names from different countries without telling where it is coming from.

Everyone seems like selling these software without any problem, however, I have many doubts in my mind. Any help will be appreciated.

 

what if the vidoes are not embedded?

 

Of course the seller told you it was legal. It wouldn't be a very good sales pitch to say yes this is illegal and you can get in trouble, but buy it from me anyway. Why have they not been shut down? Maybe they haven't been found. Maybe the sheer number of these types of services has given them protection. When a lion hunts the herd, he takes one kill. It's not possible for him to kill the whole herd. When I drive home from work, everyone seems to speed, but that doesn't make it legal. If you aren't willling to possibly pay thousands of dollars in fines then don't use it.

As far as not embedding it, it depends on what you mean. If you are hosting it then that is trouble. If you are linking to it then it depends on whether you are linking to infringing material or not. If you are linking to legitimate streams then it is not infringement. If you link to infringing material it is.

 

Your first paragraph alone sends up red flags all over. My advice is for you to trust "your many doubts".

 

I will sue google for indexing my blog pages..I did not give them permission. Hmmmm maybe I'm on to something.

 

No go. They have protection as a general search engine.

 

Greats information, but I'm wondering how come some sites that aren't offshore still manage to keep their site up and it has so much illegal videos on it, such as full length movies? I've seen some go down that had less traffic, it just makes no sense to me.

 

Often, these sites are up because no one bothered to report them. In cases when they are under investigation they may remain up for unspecified reasons.

 

No shortage of rude people around here eh....lol...good thread and thanks!

 

1. When I said "almost" sued Google, I meant that the case was settled in Googles favor, not that Perfect 10 didn't actually pursue the case. The last time I looked at the case was early 2007 though, apparently things have changed since!
2. The case isn't over, as it is still going through the court system. But the only reason this is still going on, is because Perfect 10 will not accept the courts decision. They continue to appeal the courts decisions, even though the rulings continue to lean in favor of Google. Although things have changed a lot since I have last read about this case... now things are looking up in favor of Perfect 10 after #3 happened.
3. In May of 2007 the Court of Appeals overturned the District Courts decision which was based on Fair Use.
4. I am not sure what you are saying by this, but I am basing this post on that case. I am also not saying that all video sharing is illegal, there are legitimate legal ways to do it, but sites like these do NOT fall under the fair use doctrine. The provisions are of the doctrine are as follows:

Definitely does not fall under this, as these are almost always for profit and not for educational, research, or new reporting uses. Even if they were, they would still have a heck of a time proving so in court.

These are shown in the original nature as they were intended to be shown, as they are not a parody, or anything like that, these are the full shows/movies meant to be seen as such.

Again, the whole show, meant to be seen as such. This is the part of the doctrine that people usually refer to when they talk about only using 20 or so seconds of the show/movie/music.

This is the major killer when it comes to fair use and video sharing sites like this. The potential income that sites like this take away from the media companies is huge. A network relies on its advertisers for money, and advertisers rely on the fact the people are watching the show... no viewers equals no money for the legal copyright holder. Instead the money is going into the pockets of the people running these sites.

Browntwn: Thank you for correcting me. I guess a lot can change in a short amount of time. When I researched the case in one of my college classes, it seemed as if the case was over and nothing more would be made of it, but apparently not.

Logicb0x: Things become very confusing once you start dealing with servers and things outside of your country. It really depends on the specific case. The internet is world wide (hence the www), and the laws are usually left to have some room for interpretation for just that reason. I am sure both the U.S. and India have some sort of right to pursue you legally. This is why I suggest just staying away from these types of sites.

Cleanslutz: Bluegrass special seems pretty smart, and he seems to have given you the right answer... no one is going to tell you what you are buying is going to violate laws, that would just be stupid for the seller, that is why I had to make this post because everyone selling these types of sites are saying it's 100% legal, and from what you have read, isn't exactly true.

Cashmoney818: Nope, you can still legally be held responsible by what's called contributory infringement. That is basically giving someone the means to access copyrighted material illegally. Again, this is in sort of a Grey zone, but I would not risk it.

Bluegrass special & RelevantBuZZ_PR: Ha you guys are on the right page.

Richardab: Maybe one day you will be able to... they are currently in the process of fighting a lengthy battle against Perfect 10 (a mens magazine) for indexing their copyrighted images. But like bluegrass special said, they have certain protections like fair use (maybe... we'll see) that protect them from being held accountable for contributory infringement.

KhaoticStorm: Ya you would be shocked how many sites get shut down a month. Not only those who host the material, but those who link to it. There are however sites that are able to remain afloat through all of it. There are a few different reasons for this.

1. They haven't been found yet by the companies thats material is linked on the site.
2. They are in a country where this is perfectly legal and the U.S. has no jurisdiction.
3. They have ignored take down notices and are currently in court (one comes to mind that is currently in court).

Basically just RelevantBuZZ_PR has said...

Spin: Ha those were my thoughts exactly Thanks glad you liked the thread!

 

if you embed the videos on the site, but delete it very often (every four days or so), will i still get in trouble?

 

Is it illegal? Yes, it is still illegal for you to do this. Will you get in trouble? Who knows. It really depends on your site size, where you are hosted, what you are hosting, and so many other variables come into play. So I guess the question is if you want to take the risk or not...

 

I'll throw a spin on the matter if I may but won't go too much into detail here (or at this time); a little turn from my previous posts on the matter.

As far as I know embedding videos does not constitute as direct copyright infringement (obviously you're not the source uploader nor have the content stored on your server; the browser is translating code of off the URL and therefore nothing is downloaded/copied or cached; hyper-linking). Whether it's contributory copyright infringement (think of it as enabling/aiding) is what we're discussing here and there's no definitive answer to the question yet. *Two things to consider: Service Provider and Safe Harbor.

Turning back to the first post in this thread matthewbeckman offered a key in the matter. The key is "Think Before You Buy". Profiting off of work you do not own will leave you vulnerable in the event that the content your embedding are infringing. The buyer has an out unless he/she has intention to profit from embedded content. Google Adsense comes to mind as well, though, it's easy enough to remove the Adesne code in the pages of embedded content. A forum is much easier to remove Adsense code in certain pages than blogs are.

Don't mind me as I'm tossing these points into the air to see what everyone else has to say. Those who've studied this area of law will know where I'm coming from.

 

we are not allowed to put adsense on video site.

 

No you can put adsense on a video site, just as so long as it isn't breaking any laws or their terms of service. These types of video sites however break both.

 

Besides, Google doesn't recommend Adsense on video pages. You're ads will have no relevance to them.

 

Not that I plan upon hosting copyrighted material, I don't, but I have a question....the reason I ask is because I have noticed an almost obsessive copyright fanaticsm in the specific field of the nation of which my content pertains. I've seen people post on their sites/blogs etc saying things are "copyrighted" - things like general lists that I had assumed cannot be copyrighted anyway[?] Lists of factual information; winning sports records, peoples dates of birth etc.

My present site is hosted in the US, my technical place of residence is in another nation, and the content pertains to a 3rd nation. My 'future planned' site will be hosted overseas, I will still technically reside in 2nd nation, and content pertains to 3rd nation. So I was wondering how, if any, this affects things.

Okay - I rambled and probably did not make sense, sorry, but any advice anyone can pass my way would be appreciated. Thanks.