You Tube

cormie

Hi,
I'm just curious about this. Is the material on you tube not breaking copyright laws? Take for example a show that has been broadcast on tv. Somebody then records a clip of it, say an interesting 5 minutes of that particular show, and posts it on youtube. Is this not copyright infringement? Who is responsible for this?

Also, if a link to this video is posted on another wesite, liked boards.ie, are boards also responsible?

The Bollox

I dunno, unless a lawyer pulled the Chewbacca stunt Boards would be safe

Ruu_Old

Some things are often pulled off like when the Simpsons promo for the film next year came out, Fox pulled them off Youtube (they are probably available now)

cormie

That's understandable, but for companies who wouldn't search for their material on youtube, is the material still breaking the law? Also, just say a website did the rip, they recorded it from tv, ripped it to the PC and made a clip of a broadcasted show and put their website name on it, would they also be responsible and charged with copyright infringement if somebody decided to take it to court?

dermot_sheehan

Many material probably violates copyright but youtube is protected by u.s. law, in particular the digital millenium copyright act's safe harbour provisions. These basically provide that an internet content provider shall not be liable for infringment provided they respond promptly to a dmca take down notice.

cormie

That's fair enough:)

And what about the responsibility held by another website like boards.ie having a link to a video? Are boards.ie responsible for anything given they are an Irish company, not US and they would be providing info about how to access this copyrighted material?

EDIT: Also, what if an Irish owned and hosted website were to upload their own video file, the exact same thing that may be protected by the dig mil copyright act, would it still be protected by this and the same allowances provided for the taking down of such material. Would this be different if the website was hosted in another country but still owned by an Irish company?

Just another thing too. In some of these videos, there is an intro or outro "ripped by *****, www.*******.com. Could www.*******.com be targetted even though the video has been taken down by the host, in this case being somebody like youtube?

dermot_sheehan

It's debatable whether boards would be liable under s.45 of the copyright act for secondary infringment: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA28Y2000S45.html

With regard to url's in the clips. Assuming the urls are of the site that ripped the original copy from the copyrighted work, they are liable for primary infringment under irish law. If they merely host an infringing copy they are liable for secondary infringment.

cormie

Ok thanks again. Does it make a difference where the site is hosted?

Will there still be an allowance for them to take the copyrighted material down. Say for example if www.*****.com made a clip from a copyrighted show and put it on their website and or youtube, does the millenium digital law apply here to allow them time to take it down off both sites and they will be ok? Does this apply onto to US owned/hosted websites or is it an internet wide law?