In light of the recent TVLinks shut-down in the UK, I thought we should take a look at the many other cases of lawsuits and shut-downs pertaining to copyright violations on video sites that we have covered here on WebTVWire.
Many sites which link to pirated and copyrighted material on the web have been threatened, and in most cases successfully stopped from the copyright violations they were involved in.
Here are a few discussions on the subject:-
- PeekVid to Get Sued to Oblivion? MPAA files lawsuit
- DRM & Copyright Destroying Internet Television?
- MahTV Shutdown by the MPAA
- TV Show Directory QuickSilverScreen.com Threatened by Fox
- Linking Law Expert Dr Stephan Ott Talks About Linking To Pirated Video
- Judge Denies Appeal that Deep Linking Directly to Video and Audio Streams is Not Illegal
- Linking to infringing content is probably illegal in the US
Affecting Big Guns Like YouTube
There is a whole range of sites now fearing also being targeted as they do a similar thing to TVLinks. And these video copyright complications have also hit huge sites such as YouTube and MySpace:-
- GEMA – The RIAA and MPAA of Europe target YouTube and MySpace
- Google Re-trial Coming For Linking Liability
- AdBrite InVideo | Helping Video Pirates Like AllSP Make Money
- YouTube’s Digital Fingerprinting Technology To Include AutoShutDown | Due September
- YouTube Copyright Lawsuit | NMPA Adds its Weight to Pending Class Action
- Claim Your Content | YouTube Anti Piracy Measure Coming Soon
- YouTube soon to launch copyright detection system | Claim Your Content
The upshot of all this is that linking to sites which contain copyright infringing material is illegal in the US, and it seems now the UK too. If companies as successful and as rich as YouTube can’t even fend off copyright lawsuits, what chance have the smaller, independent sites?
Your Views
As always, we welcome your comments on the subject. Do you agree with the hard line being taken by media companies and organisations protecting their copyrights, or do you think our freedoms and right to share information on the web is being infringed upon?
