11-03-2013, 10:29 AM
(11-03-2013, 02:16 AM)GrimmForum Wrote: @HellJacket - If you post a link to copyrighted material, what you've done wrong is "Contributory copyright infringement" - read more here http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/linking-...-materials
DMCA notices are common, especially when it comes to pirated tv shows. We are not going to allow links to copyrighted materials.
Linking to the such sites is not "a link to a copyrighted material." None of these sites at issue post any copyrighted material on their own. They link you to an exterior site which contains the copyrighted material. I know this sounds like hairsplitting for someone who may not be a lawyer, but it is an important distinction. Here's what the link you supplied says:
The situation changes when you knowingly link to works that clearly infringe somebody's copyright, like pirated music files or video clips of commercially distributed movies and music videos. In this situation, you might be liable for what is known as "contributory copyright infringement." Contributory copyright infringement occurs by "intentionally inducing or encouraging direct infringement" of a copyrighted work. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd, 545 U.S. 913, (2005). As long as you do not know that a work infringes someone's copyright, then you cannot be held liable for contributory infringement for directing users to that work. On the other hand, it is not necessarily safe to simply claim that you "didn't know" when the circumstances make it clear the material you link to is infringing. Use your common sense. Fred vonLohman gives the following rules of thumb to help avoid contributory copyright infringement (specifically with reference to embedding videos):"(1) don't embed videos that are obviously infringing, and (2) consider removing embedded videos once you've been notified by a copyright owner that they are infringing." Relatedly, you may be able to protect yourself against claims of contributory copyright infringement by complying with the notice-and-takedown procedures of the DMCA. For details, see Notice-and-Takedown.
As I noted in my first paragraph none of these sites actually host copyrighted material. Posting a link to a site that links you to another site does not likely induce copyright infringement. Now, if I posted a link here to an actual video with copyrighted material, that may qualify as inducement. But contributory infringement is very difficult because I have to "knowingly" induce direct infringement. For instance, if I don't know what the person will download at the particular site, I don't have knowledge of "direct infringement." Only where I know exactly what's on the other end of that link do I have such "knowledge. Hell, some of the links on these video sites go to "public domain" works. Also, if I believe downloading falls under "fair use", it may still not be knowledge of "direct infringement" since the Supreme Court still hasn't touched that issue (though plenty of district judges have shrugged that logic aside).
Have you read the Grokster opinion cited above? It was a very narrow ruling. The court totally ignored whether direct infringement was occurring by individual users downloading the works. However, Grokster was a for-profit site that was advertising that people could downloaded copyrightable works from their service. That's what the court agreed upon.