I was wondering if having full TV episodes online, without commercials, is legal or illegal....I see tons of sites with say for example Family Guy episodes where all the seasons episodes are viewable right on the site through various online video hosts..I was wondering how sites of this nature get away with things like this..Are their hosts located outside the United States where the laws cant really effect them? Whats the situation here, anybody have any info for me?...Abunch of people have asked me this and i dont really know what to tell them due to the fact theirs so many sites out there like i mentioned...I would like to get a lil knowledge for myself so i can atleast tell them something when im asked. Thanks for reading
Hm, thats pretty good idea. I have a better idea, once you get an answer to this query, please PM me.
Are they illegal? It depends, but probably. Even if they do not host the files (only link or embed) they can be found guilty of contributory copyright infringement. If they are linking to non-infringing files then they are legal. For example, many of the networks now put their shows online. If you link to their copies, then you're fine (of course those often have commercials). If you link to files that are not authorized then it is illegal. Then why are there so many sites out there that get away with it? Several reasons. 1) Copyrights do not have to be vigorously defended. That means the copyright holder can wait until the right time to come after you. 2) There are so many sites. It is mind boggling how many duplicate copies there are of things on the web. Sheer volume means if they did nothing else, it would take them the rest of their natural lives to track them all down and shut them down. 3) It costs money. While newer rules for web hosts make it easier to get infringing sites to remove content or be removed, sometimes it takes a lawsuit. A lawsuit is not cheap. 4) Some sites are owned by people in countries that don't care about US laws. 5) A lawsuit (even if won) may not even pay for itself. Depending on the situation, the plaintiff may only get actual damages. It is hard to show what actual damages are when the video is being offered for free on the offending site. 6) Assuming that all the other things were in the copyright holder's favor, most of these sites generate low incomes and are owned by people with no money. Even if a judge awards millions of dollars, you can only get what the guy has.