Hi,
I recently posted a YouTube trailer of the new film Cloverfied from JJ Abrams on my site. The YouTube was not uploaded by me but I simply pasted the usual Embed code.
I was contacted by Lawyers from Paramount who asked to remove it.
Should they not have got the offending YouTube video pulled rather than asking me to take it down.
Is this not a grey area when we consider embedding content elements from other sites?
Thanks in advance.
YouTube and Such
Excellent question!
It is kind of fitting that this would be the first query in this forum. My latest article on the Blog Herald dealt with this issue and your post seems to be the perfect example of what I was saying.
Basically, according to attorney Denise Howell, any time that you post copyrighted works to your site, you are potentially liable. Even if it is just embedded into your site. Worse still, it doesn't matter if you were unaware of the infringement, the infringement is still actionable up to $30,000 per item. Furthermore, YouTube does not provide any protections in its terms of use, which should be expected, and the user over the video is solely responsible for what damage it may cause.
It is pretty frightening stuff, but embedding a YouTube clip into your site does make you potentially liable even though you did not upload the work or host it. The fact that you were using it and gaining benefit from it is all that is required.
That being said though. Paramount was being fairly foolish about the whole process. With a simple DMCA notice to YouTube, they could have disabled the clip both on YouTube as well as your site and any others that were displaying it. They were wasting time and money by contacting you directly and I, nor does anyone else I've spoken with, really understand that strategy.
Still though, there is nothing to stop a copyright holder from "jumping the tracks" and suing small webmasters or bloggers for embedding YouTube clips, especially if the webmaster has deep pockets or can be motivated to settle early.
Fortunately though, most rightsholders will either act as Paramount did and ask you to remove the work or simply send a DMCA notice to YouTube and disable it that way. The odds of such a matter reaching court are very, very slim.
Despite that, I encourage people to not embed clearly infringing videos and, instead, stick to embedding amateur clips or clips from official channels. Also, when in doubt, consider linking to the video rather than embedding it. Linking is not a guarantee that you will not be sued or liable, but it puts distance between you and the infringement and lessens the likelihood.
If you want more information and some great links on the topic, take a look at my original post on the Blog Herald about this:
http://www.blogherald.com/2007/07/09/the-copyright-risk-of-embedding-youtube-clips/
Thanks very much, you
Thanks very much, you explained the situation very clearly and it does make sense.
Thanks again, and I'll be adding your blog to my Google Reader.
Interesting Aside
In an interesting aside to your situation, Fred von Lohmann of the EFF has chimed in on the subject in response to my article on the Blog Herald. According to him, the prospects of embedding a YouTube clip aren't that scary.
I'm still skeptical of it, especially since the ninth circuit, which he references, is not always representative of the rest of the nation, but he does make some very good points and his views should definitely be given weight.
What is NOT up for debate is what happens after a site owner becomes aware of the infringement. In that case there is still definite liability.
So this really doesn't change your situation much, but I wanted to note that even lawyers disagree on this issue.
Then again, they disagree on many copyright issues.
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