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Posted by Colin B on 12/06/06 03:29
"PTravel" <ptravel@travelersvideo.com> wrote in message
news:4tmit2F14ud57U1@mid.individual.net...
Thanks very much PTravel for helping readers to understand the legal
position over copyright infringements. You say it's not Youtube's job to
instruct
uploaders on the law. However, in view of the huge number of apparent
copyright infringements on Youtube, the rather serious consequences of
uploading copyrighted video without the permission of the owners does not
appear to be an issue for thousands of people! Perhaps these people do need
some further instruction!
There are several reports on internet about Youtube being sued, despite the
fact that website operators cannot be held responsible for infringing
material posted by their users. See, for example:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060718-7285.html
One of the argument in this case is that, because Youtube is hosting the
videos themselves, the video site actively encourages copyright
infringement. I liked this discussion about copyright, it is well worth
watching:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr9SQ4qkMMk
But I wonder whether Youtube itself actively searches for, and routinely
takes down, what are obviously copyright infringing video clips (rather than
waiting for complaints to come in)? Just one example, type in in the search
area "Elton John" and see how many videos are likely to be copyright
infringers. Do the same for any other celebrity and you can see the huge
number of DVD and TV clips there are on Youtube that most likely infringe
copyright. If I owned a video sharing web site, I think I would make a
concerted effort to take down videos that obviously infringed copyright.
Then, you would be able to demonstrate to anyone that the site in no way
encourages copyright infringement. Just think of the number of Youtube
videos that even one employee could take down in one week by simply
searching for celebrities and other key words in order to show up what are
almost certainly "illegal" copies!
But as has been said several times in this thread, it seems that there are
some copyright holders who simply don't mind samples of their work remaining
on Youtube because of the advertising value they provide. It may be of
advantage to Youtube also to leave such videos on the site because of the
large numbers of hits on the site these videos produce. This, in turn, might
increase the market value of the Youtube site and encourage more advertisers
to advertise their products on Youtube.
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