What are the legalities of hosting other peoples videos?

[tomld]

I am wondering what is legal and what is not in terms of hosting other peoples videos on your website? For example, lets say a funny home video such as the Star Wars kid hits the net and I want to show it on my website. Can I legally host it? A few specific examples I am wondering if are legal or not are....

TV Show clips (ie, a funny Simpsons clip)
News video (video shot by a news agency)
A random persons home video (ie a high school prank)
A random funny video with an unknown source

If anyone has knowledge on this subject, can you shed light on what is legal and what isn't. And perhaps what makes something illegal to host without permission. For example does the owner have to file for a copyright or is there automatic protection? Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks
Tom

[erayboul]

I'm not a lawyer and certainly no expert in terms of copyright law, but I'm pretty sure that the copyright holder is always the one that gets to say what is legal and what is not. I can, for example, go home tonight and shoot a home video and post it to my site, but because I'm the copyright holder (it's automatic), I can decide what people can do with it. If I wanted I could license it out and collect a fee anytime someone wanted to view it. Of course, you have to have a technological way to protect your intellectual property, in this case your video. Digital Rights Management comes to mind.

In regards to your specific examples:

1. The production company that produces the Simpson's each week probably owns the copyright. They would probably never allow a clip of the Simpson's on your website, but if they allowed it they would probably want a royalty (it would be part of the license agrement between the two parties involved).

2. News video: The news agency, TV station, or maybe the cameraman own the copyright. Again, they would pobably want a royalty.

3 & 4. Random person's home video (known or unknown source): Most likely the person who shot the video has the copyright. They would have to give you permission.

[tomld]

So essentially every major video storage website, including Google Video is violating copyrights? Is this a standard practice? I mean every humor or comedy website that hosts a funny video is in copyright violation? Is this a serious violation or standard? Is there ever a situation were a video becomes public domain and you can freely use it?

If I am not selling the videos and offering them freely, is it still a copyright violation?

[edDV]

Try to post a video on Google Video and then read their terms carefully.

They seem to be a model for what you want to do. Maybe you could hire their lawyers.

https://upload.video.google.com/video_faq.html

#4 # What types of videos are you accepting?

We accept any type of video content, with these restrictions:

* You must own all necessary rights to the content, including copyrights to both the video and the audio.
* You must be able to upload the video to us electronically.
* The video must not contain pornographic or obscene material or other content that violates our policy guidelines.


The content may be reviewed prior to being made available online.

[tomld]

Thats good to know. I Just read over the Google FAQ and got the impression they do a minimal preliminary screening (meaning they screen out any obvious violations; movies, tv shows, etc). It seems the rest is self governed much in the same way eBay is self governed, through the DMCA.

So would it be adequate to screen out obvious violations, and govern the rest through responding to DMCA complaints?

[MOVIEGEEK]

adam is the resident IP lawyer and moderator,maybe you can PM him.
erayboul pretty much summed up what you can and can't do,the Berne Convention gives a person automatic copyright protection.I wouldn't "govern the rest through responding to DMCA complaints?" because it will be a subpeona to appear in court.

[tomld]

MovieGeek, are you saying the policies both Google Video and eBay use (relying on DMCA complaints from IP owners to remove content) is not the correct approach? Seems like those two companies would have a good legal approach to this issue. How else would you know if the teenage prank video uploaded by your users is the users own work or something he found unless the real owner steps up with a DMCA complaint? By DMCA compaints, I mean sent to my company for content removal, as ebay and google both does.

[MOVIEGEEK]

^ The difference here is you knowingly posted video and audio that is copyrighted.Ignorance of the law will not hold up in court.Your question is similar to the P2P lawsuits:the P2P companies say the users are guilty and the MPAA/RIAA say it's the P2P network.
I'm not a lawyer so I suggest you consult one.

[tomld]

Moviegeek, that's not what I mean. I'm saying if a user of my site uploads the video and I am merely the host. I agree ignorance means nothing. However in the case where you are merely the host, such as Google Video is, and a user uploads it.