Yanker wrote:The latter, on the other hand, absolutely could be copyright infringing. Maybe these shoouldcome with a disclaimer from the poster stating they own the copyright to their material before the link is permitted? Of course, this puts more overhead on the admins' who would have to vet posts/links, or redesign the web page to only allow links if the owner also ticks a "copyright ownership" declaration type field (not I'm sure how legally robust that would be).
Yes, this is what we are doing. Creators of webteases have basically two options. They can upload their own images, in which case they have to check a box that they agree to our Terms of Service which explains their rights and warranties, including things like copyright, obscene content, etc.
If you do choose this option, you need to do your own research on what you can and can't use. Anything you upload with permission of the copyright holder obviously does not violate copyright. Beyond that you can claim fair use, which is subject to certain criteria. Since I'm not a lawyer I really cannot advise you on exactly what you can and cannot do, you have to do your own research or find a lawyer. But I can say that an absolute nono is using images from the private member area of sites since it totally goes against the fourth fair use criterion. Please refer to the four criteria for fair use that a court will consider:
17 U.S.C. ยง 107 wrote:
the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
the nature of the copyrighted work;
the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Again, I can absolutely not make any recommendation other than: When in doubt, consult a lawyer. There is another alternative, namely:
The second option we offer is that you can use images that we provide (click "Gallery webtease"). If you're unsure about the issues surrounding copyright, I recommend you choose this option. We currently have over 16000 of them and I'm working on adding more in the future. Our new tease system Eos will also have support for gallery images.
Note that if you do choose to upload your own images and we receive a complaint (DMCA notification) that these violate somebody's copyright, we will delete your tease and you will receive a warning. Repeat offenders will lose their account entirely. You can dispute a DMCA notice on fair use or other grounds by filing a counter-notification.
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I believe les isn't talking about teases though, but rather links on the forum.
To be honest, it seems to be that you should be fine if you use common sense. If you are linking to a download, which is the same exact video that on Clips4sale costs 14.95$, then I think it's fair to assume that that download is illegal. So don't post the link.
If you post infringing links I'll delete them if I see them or get a complaint and you'll get a warning or, if you're a repeat infringer, a ban. I don't see how this is different than any other forum - try posting a link to a pirated copy for a game on IGN.com and see what happens.
As for blacklisting entire sites - I don't see the point. Linking to copyrighted content *on* those sites is already prohibited, so if you link to something legal on that site, why should that be an issue. For example, if you link to an album download on PirateBay that was uploaded
by the artists themselves I don't see anything wrong with it.
For example: Please enjoy Nine Inch Nails' album
Ghosts I and
support them for being awesome.
By putting "PirateBay" on a black list, I couldn't link to that album. That's what was wrong with SOPA. If you lump the good in with the bad and you start indiscriminately hitting people over the head with a big stick, you are weakening the law, not strengthening it.
If you want to talk
about sites that are infringing a lot ("Piratebay has been in the news again"), I'll allow it as long as you are not promoting or encouraging infringement. Definitely if somebody asks for a good place to get illegal downloads, for the love of god don't give him one. Instead tell him to respect and support the artists.
If you see links to infringing content, feel free to report them, but
please do your homework and make sure the link is actually infringing. On tube sites sometimes content is posted as promotional content by the authors or content is sublicensed and then posted etc. It's a lot of work to investigate these claims, delete the content, notify the poster, potentially notify the copyright holder, etc. So, yes, please notify us, but please be sure.
@mods: You are absolutely authorized to remove obviously infringing links. If you do, please PM the author of the post. You can also add a moderation note to that user's account via the MCP with information about the incident including a link to the post that contained the infringing link. Also please help communicate these rules to members who ask or refer them to this post.
To end on a positive note: I do want you to share good content. There is plenty of free-and-legal as well as commercial-and-worth-buying content out there that you can link to. Use common sense and if something seems dodgy investigate or just err on the side of caution and don't post it.
