Video embedding illegal or legal?
- Thread starter obiwan69
- Start date
jamescolwell
Regular Member
- Nov 25, 2015
- 238
- 35
yes 99% it is legal because you are embed not host in you hosting so.
intenso09
Regular Member
- Oct 22, 2014
- 312
- 146
It's pretty difficult because your location plays a high role.
Embeding and even hotlinking can be illegal if it's copyrighted content. It often plays a high role if you do it intentionally.
I know this from some current court cases from 2016 (US/EU). All I can say is that you can make it kind of legal or at least in a gray zone but it always affects the user experience in a negative way.
Embeding and even hotlinking can be illegal if it's copyrighted content. It often plays a high role if you do it intentionally.
I know this from some current court cases from 2016 (US/EU). All I can say is that you can make it kind of legal or at least in a gray zone but it always affects the user experience in a negative way.
WeWontBeAlone
Regular Member
- Jan 13, 2016
- 489
- 40
I run websites where I embed TV show episodes (NOT HOST THEM) and make sites based around that show for example 'family guy' or 'Simpsons' most that's happened to me is DMCA complaints to get removed off google and a DMCA complaint to my hosting that got my website suspended. I've done this for 3-4 years now and that's the pinnacle of that's happened to me. I went to see a lawyer a few months back and he told me that it was a grey area and there's nothing illegal about embedding.
Here's the premise of why I find it to be legal.
My website works as an index for already public material found on the web. I do not claim to own, or host these videos, I explain clearly in my legal disclaimer that we work as an index similar to how google does, just for smaller group of material.
The people who upload these videos on various websites like Dailymotion, YouTube, MP4Uplaod are claiming ownership and allowing it to be shared upon uploading (they can remove the embed privileges in settings).
Also, if you don't live in the USA I don't think DMCA even affects you as it's an American law.
The argument I can make to myself is people come to my website for many reasons, I've build community, chat, forums etc around the website, and some come just for the videos. If I only put ads on the website itself not the videos, there's no money being made directly from the video, rather pop-ups that display on the page which also includes blog pots, a chatroom, etc whose to say the video is the thing let alone the only thing generating income?
I also provide an e-mail for people to contact me if they're upset about a specific video and I will remove it.
Here's the premise of why I find it to be legal.
My website works as an index for already public material found on the web. I do not claim to own, or host these videos, I explain clearly in my legal disclaimer that we work as an index similar to how google does, just for smaller group of material.
The people who upload these videos on various websites like Dailymotion, YouTube, MP4Uplaod are claiming ownership and allowing it to be shared upon uploading (they can remove the embed privileges in settings).
Also, if you don't live in the USA I don't think DMCA even affects you as it's an American law.
The argument I can make to myself is people come to my website for many reasons, I've build community, chat, forums etc around the website, and some come just for the videos. If I only put ads on the website itself not the videos, there's no money being made directly from the video, rather pop-ups that display on the page which also includes blog pots, a chatroom, etc whose to say the video is the thing let alone the only thing generating income?
I also provide an e-mail for people to contact me if they're upset about a specific video and I will remove it.
I don't mean to sound rude but no matter how you try to explain it to yourself to find it legal, like others have said, embedding in general is not illegal unless the video is copyrighted. If it is they'll go after you because your website is distributing content to which you have no right. If you live outside of US they may not sue you, but they'll have your website deindexed and have your hosting service suspend or close your account until you remove the link or video. You can't defend yourself by saying, "I did not upload it ... some else did.." because one way or the other you're helping in distribution of illegal content. If you don't like it, you can sue them .... but I wouldn't hold my breath.