Think before you link or you could wind up in the clink!

**RU Joe** · 03-12-2011, 01:02 AM

No joke.
Apparently this guy is being charged with linking to online videos, on the grounds that they were copyrighted material.
Fine, but the article goes on to say that

Quote:

"Under that sort of thinking, everyone who's sent around a link to a copyrighted YouTube video is a criminal,"

New York man faces five years in jail for ‘linking’ to online videos | The Raw Story

**alohaex** · 03-12-2011, 01:06 AM

I thought all youtube video were free to everyone this really makes you think. How can you tell which not to use

**elrod21** · 03-12-2011, 11:08 AM

This is sad, and ridiculous. Scary too.

**Tails** · 03-12-2011, 11:10 AM

Viacom strikes again!

**warghoul** · 03-12-2011, 11:32 AM

Hoooooogaaaaaan!

**alohaex** · 03-12-2011, 03:58 PM

Ok I'm no technical person but from what I can understand he got into trouble cause he posted links to get pay per view events for free even I know that that is a no no

**Dudebro** · 03-12-2011, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warghoul

Hoooooogaaaaaan!

+1 for the great reference.

**warghoul** · 03-12-2011, 05:05 PM

+1 back at you cause shultz is infinately cooler.

**RU Joe** · 03-12-2011, 05:54 PM

Net Nazis?
Ha ha ha ha ha - that ist wild!
+1 all around!

Seriously though, who knows how far Col. Klink and Sgt. Schultz will push this thing - will we soon be in danger for posting songs in the 'What song are you listening to?' thread?

Ok those videos the guy in the article posted were pay per view copyrighted material, but will they expand that to include other videos?

**Demon-Mask** · 03-12-2011, 06:06 PM

What is "the clink", sorry I am not all that good with slang terms for anything at all.

**RU Joe** · 03-12-2011, 06:07 PM

It's an old term for jail, referring to the sound of a cell door being slammed shut and 'clinking' locked.

**warghoul** · 03-12-2011, 06:09 PM

@ JG This will probably get continualy worse you know how greedy people are they wont stop until they have squeazed every penny out of us.

**Demon-Mask** · 03-12-2011, 06:14 PM

Ah, I guess that makes sense.

I don't think copyright violation gets people thrown in jail often, but rather it can earn some hefty fines.

But all of this over a youtube video? That is asinine.

**alohaex** · 03-12-2011, 06:22 PM

If memory serves me right I remember seeing at the start of my DVD's if you violate the copyright you will end up in jail for some time

**Dudebro** · 03-12-2011, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DM

But all of this over a youtube video?

Not that simple.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JG

pay per view copyrighted material

This is something companies lose money over and they actively pursue it. Sites that host PPV stuff get shut down constantly.

**Demon-Mask** · 03-12-2011, 06:47 PM

Ah, I must have missed that. If they actively lose money over it, then they should pursue it.

**RU Joe** · 03-12-2011, 07:00 PM

This guy in the article did the same thing as stealing cablevision; he got hold of material for sale and was distributing it for free.
In my opinion, he was asking for it.

My concern is that they could use the precedent against people who post songs and other such videos from Youtube eventually as well.
WG, you're right in thinking they're greedy - and that's why I believe we may see this mushroom into something far bigger.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to hold off on posting your favorite CD or DVD clip until we see how far this goes.
Who knows - maybe even pictures on the net will be next; after all almost every image I post on RU has a disclaimer:

'this image may be subject to copyright'

**Dudebro** · 03-12-2011, 07:02 PM

Youtube already pulls audio if it's contested. I've clicking tons of videos were there's no sound at all and a notice stating that copyright infringement caused it to be pulled.

**RU Joe** · 03-12-2011, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dudebro

Youtube already pulls audio if it's contested. I've clicking tons of videos were there's no sound at all and a notice stating that copyright infringement caused it to be pulled.

True, but I get the idea they want to start going after people who post them.
I've said many times they're getting free advertising, but I think the concern may be with people using recording programs to capture the audio and video to store on their computers and burn CD's and DVD's from.

**alohaex** · 03-12-2011, 08:01 PM

My friend got into trouble for this she was downloading a movie off a site and they caught her. Her choices was to either pay a $3000 fine or 3 years in jail she chose to pay the fine

**Kong** · 03-12-2011, 08:03 PM

A link is not a copyrighted. If it was then Google would be the biggest criminal on the Internet.

An analogy to real life would be if he was standing on a street corner pointing at a theater across the street that he does not own or work for and saying "hey that theater across the street is showing free movies." And he has zero info about any crimes the theater is or is not committing. All he knows is free stuff is going down across the street and he wants to tell everyone walking by.

Hardly something we would think of as a crime. And if you make it a crime then the Internet breaks. What if I linked to a commercial on youtube thinking "hey, it's on youtube, it must be fine to send this link to a friend." but it turns out that the owner of the commercial is short for cash and heavy on lawyers so they sue me - not youtube because youtube can legally show any copyrighted video they want as long as they remove it if asked to. That's right the page being linked to is legal. They are suing the guy for linking to something that was legally online to begin with. They are suing him because they can't sue the people actually hosting the video.

But it gets worse. What if I post a link to an article about birds. But then a week later the same company that is heavy on lawyers and short on cash comes along and changes the content of that site. They upload a copyrighted movie to that page and now I could be sued for linking to what I thought was a page about bird calls of North America.

And search engines like google do the exact same thing that this guy is being charged with (link to copyrighted material) so they can be sued too. End result everyone is too afraid to link to anything. And the internet is a bunch of stagnant content that don't go anywhere.

The one difference in all of that and this guy is that nearly all he did was post links to copyrighted material. That makes it look like his only intention was to help others break the law. Fact remains though, links are not copyrighted. There is no law about what you can and can not link to anywhere in the world except in China and North Korea. There is no way you can realistically enforce a law of this nature even if there was one. And no good will come from it.

If he takes it to court he will win but most likely they have enough money to bleed him through court costs until he settles out of court and they make an "example" out of him.

Here is an example of someone else they tried to do this to
[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_Links]TV Links - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
He ended up losing his website and was arrested but no charges were ever pressed and he was quickly released because there was no law broke. And it ended up causing thousands of copycat sites to pop up since then including the new one they are dealing with now.

The movie and music industry can not stop the change that technology is going to bring. Instead of wasting money and energy fighting it they should start investing in it and make sure they are a part of it.

**alohaex** · 03-12-2011, 08:09 PM

So in general what did all that mean Kong?

**Kong** · 03-12-2011, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alohaex

So in general what did all that mean Kong?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kong

A link is not a copyrighted.

...

If he takes it to court he will win but most likely they have enough money to bleed him through court costs until he settles out of court and they make an "example" out of him.

...

.

**alohaex** · 03-12-2011, 10:09 PM

Thanks I'm a little slow on the uptake today

**Demon-Mask** · 03-13-2011, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alohaex

My friend got into trouble for this she was downloading a movie off a site and they caught her. Her choices was to either pay a $3000 fine or 3 years in jail she chose to pay the fine

$3000 or three years in jail, the damage caused to the company couldn't have been close to that.
I'd never be able to pay off $3000, so I'd have likely gone for jail time.