Teases with megavideo links:

[Human]

If we link to such content, does this open the site up to any liabilities, or do we circumvent that by stating that the members provide the content?

So long as milovana is only linking and not hosting, it should be covered under free speech.

[seraph0x]

I took the tease offline, mostly because it's pretty pointless to have a tease that consists only of a broken link.

On the general issue: Just because a file was hosted on Megaupload/Megavideo does not mean it was uploaded in violation of copyright. I'm not aware of any Megavideo links in any teases that linked to copyrighted content, but even if there were any they are down now, so legally there is no point in removing them now. We're only interested in stopping and preventing copyright infringement, so if I thought the Megavideo links were infringing, I would have already removed them.

We remove copyrighted content or links to copyrighted content upon notice under the DMCA. We also employ hashing to prevent copyrighted files from being re-uploaded once they are removed.

I believe that almost all of the content on Milovana is legal, based on the fact that content producers who have seen their promotional content posted on Milovana contact us to offer a commission for referrals if we join their affiliate programs. This is how we came to set up a partnership with Kink.com and as the site grows and server costs rise, we'll be looking to create more partnerships along the same lines.

I hope you understand that I'm hesitant to discuss legal issues in an open forum. If you have copyrighted content to report, please email our designated agent at [email protected]. You can address general questions to [email protected]

[les]

Thanks for the clarification,

      A query
            I had assumed we were OK if the source was freely available in the open,
But not if the source was an obvious paid for content.

Of course everything is in turmoil at the moment.
I have pulled all my cloud storage for the moment and backed-up to external hard drive and DVD.
While we wait the outcome of America's big boots.

You may PM me if you wish seraph0x.

[Human]

I hope you understand that I'm hesitant to discuss legal issues in an open forum. If you have copyrighted content to report, please email our designated agent at [email protected]. You can address general questions to [email protected]

There is a designated agent other than you for copyright stuff? Woa

[Human]

I'm actually thinking of the future. Currently, yes, we probably would be. But it's a slippery slope that they've started down - once they shut down megavideo, they could (maybe) go after distribution sources as well, by tracing backlinks. I don't know how far into it they want to go, I was just thinking "better safe than sorry".

That was the whole SOPA backlash, and why major sites were against it.

In any case, milovana itself doesnt actively distribute links. What you are saying is whether milovana could be made resonsible for the links posted here by users. I hope such a time doesnt come, and if it does, a lot lot of perfectly good sites would be under trouble, for they would have to monitor what is posted. This is obviously very unfair to the website. Consider a case where a user posts a link to a site, where one has to go, click, enter some captcha, wait, and then get yet another link to a file to be downloaded. is Seraph supposed to do all this, download the file and see if its ok?

[seraph0x]

There is a designated agent other than you for copyright stuff? Woa

LOL! My guess is, it's still him. Just a designated address for copyright issues. But ... I've been wrong before!

Yep, it's me.

@Human: "Designated agent" is just the legal terminology that the DMCA uses - we had to file a form with the US Copyright Office stating where copyright claimants can send DMCA takedown notices.

We can't afford to hire anybody whether as a DMCA agent or as a developer or for anything else, not by a long shot. Even just the server costs, accounting and CA franchise tax exceed our ad revenue several times. The way Milovana is financed is by me living in a slightly smaller apartment than I otherwise would.

[Human]

We can't afford to hire anybody whether as a DMCA agent or as a developer or for anything else, not by a long shot. Even just the server costs, accounting and CA franchise tax exceed our ad revenue several times. The way Milovana is financed is by me living in a slightly smaller apartment than I otherwise would.

You have to pay a periodic franchise tax?
Even if the business is in the red?

[seraph0x]

You have to pay a periodic franchise tax?
Even if the business is in the red?

Yes: http://open.salon.com/blog/richard_ride ... nchise_tax