A lot of web sites have video clips from tv shows like LOST or movies like Spider-Man on their web site. Is that okay? Is it legal? If its not legal, do the companyes like Fox and Sony really care about fan sites doing this? They are promoting the show/movie. Do they look at it as a free promotion or as something they dislike?
im not too sure, promo videos should be okay but still if they have publishing copyrights you might need to keep link of their original website.
yes companies do give promotion videos(you can download them FREE from there websites) and though most of the time they allow you to distribute it freely but still better to read there copyright. Only in rarest of situations you will find permission to distribute full episodes(like in south park where matt and tray themselves want it to freely distribute it) but most of the time, it's illegal.
Its illegal as if requested they would have to take them down. Unless they have a deal with the company to allow and uploaded promo clips
I would have thought it would come under fair use as long as they were short clips, more details here : http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/index.html It gives examples of fair use here : http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-c.html#2
The context of usage matters. If you are just grabbing clips to show for no reason, except to attract people to make money, then no it's not fair use. If you are commenting on them (not sure "ok cool dude" garbage), then that opens up possibilities. You will also want to send a letter to each owner for permission. This will look good if you wind up in court. The judge will lack at whether you simple took content without asking. Even if the owner said no, if you were in the right and made an attempt to get permission, your case got a whole lot better.