Embedding YouTube Videos May Soon Be a Felony Techdirt reports that Senate bill 978 – a bill to amend the criminal penalty provision for criminal infringement of a copyright, and for other purposes – may be used to prosecute people for embedding YouTube videos. According to Mark Masnick, if a website embeds a YouTube video that is determined to have infringed on copyright and more than 10 people view it on that website, the owner or others associated with the website could face up to five years in prison. Read Masnick’s article here. He explains how the new law would expand copyright violations from reproducing and distributing to performing – including streaming video over the internet. As readers of Infowars.com know, many videos are removed from YouTube after copyright owners complain about infringement. This happens with thousands of news clips every year. Most people are familiar with the now common black box replacing a video that says the video has been removed for copyright reasons. If enacted, this law will go one step further and turn people who embed a copyrighted video into criminals. It will also set the stage to criminalize linking to copyrighted information — like corporate media news sources — and shut down the alternative media. It will also make people think twice about putting up all kinds of videos, from news reports to clips from documentaries and other educational material. It does not take a vivid imagination to realize the political implications of this legislation. Here is the full text of the bill. http://www.infowars.com/embedding-youtube-videos-may-soon-be-a-felony/
<object width="560" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0SPgBzUsSjg?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0SPgBzUsSjg?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="349" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
That does sound disturbing but I would like to know more about it. I read the article at the link and the link in that article to what is supposed to be the full text of the bill. I didn't see anything particularly about embedding videos but that may just be that since this bill is amending an existing bill. Still if embedding is now considered criminal by this bill shouldn't this bill state that explicitly? From the bill [rquoter]‘(2) shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years, fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both, if-- ‘(A) the offense consists of 10 or more public performances by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copyrighted works; and ‘(B)(i) the total retail value of the performances, or the total economic value of such public performances to the infringer or to the copyright owner, would exceed $2,500; or ‘(ii) the total fair market value of licenses to offer performances of those works would exceed $5,000;’; and[/rquoter] http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s112-978 Does "public performance by electronic means" mean "embedding"? I am not certain but am curious to see how this plays out.
I see them using it more to combat the sites that provide the links to the movies and tv shows instead of hosting the video files, and use that as the excuse that NO files are hosted on our site. etc.
The other big question I have about this is would this mean Clutch is liable for the embedded videos and links to videos that are posted on the BBS.
<object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AwT-ns1ARBM?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AwT-ns1ARBM?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="349" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
If infowars' take on it is correct.............yes Even clipping out individual plays is(and has been) considered copyright infringement , and lets not even bring up "other" video links that get posted around here.
<iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ad1Umj6hxMw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
So we won't be able to post videos like this? <object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7hcA8wFKhYY?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7hcA8wFKhYY?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object>
It wouldn't make since to come after those of us who are embedding videos from Youtube. Wouldn't you be targeting the people that upload the videos to Youtube when they don't own the copyrights instead? If you owned the copyrights to a video, and placed it on Youtube, and didn't want anyone to embed your video you could disable embedding.
I wish they would criminalize it. The internet revolutionizes the way information should be handled, but we continue to try to apply antiquated ideas about copyrights to a new environment where it doesn't fit. For now, we skate along because of a passive-aggressive enforcement -- let violators go on their merry way but take copyrighted materials down when rights-holders object -- and we won't get a new legal paradigm until there's a real confrontation. You get that with lawsuits and criminal prosecutions where the stakes go up and people can start saying, 'but this doesn't make any sense!' So bring it. Reactionary defenders of copyrights aren't going to win in the end.
