Legal Issues

AdmnPower

AdmnPower

VIP Member
What are the legal issues that surround websites that offer streamable video content such as tv shows and movies and such. I realize that such content is not licensed properly, but who regulates it. (Especially if the site is hosted in another country) Not only that what legal problems could face the end user who watches the content. Just interested and thought i'd bring up this topic for discussion. I'm not really talking about a site like youtube that is owned by some massive company but rather private sites that are hosted out of the country. Just thought i'd see if i could get a discussion going. Please keep it clean and don't get too bent out of shape. I've noticed a lot of people seem to be really jumpy about any discussion of what is legal and not legal here these days. I don't see anything wrong with an open discussion about such things as long as we're not discussion how to do things that are not legal. Rather i would like to see a healthy discussion on what people thing should and should not be legal vs. what is and is not legal.
 
I understand what your'e saying. Last week I got permission from a Mod to ask for a streaming program that would allow me to save streaming video. Unfortunately I got no replies but was told if it is copyrighted then it would be illegal. My reason was I wanted to save some news clips and I likened it to recording onto your VCR from the television, which is something everyone does but is that legal?

The news clips were from the BBC here in the UK and although I am behaving innocently (I think). I still don't know if news items are copyrighted.

I know this deviates slightly from your question but it is in a similar vein.:)
 
Hmm I guess I can start, watching videos online seems to be a touchy subject along with music and movies.

I think watching something or listening to something online should be legal, as long as you cannot download it from the site. However, placing copyrighted material online without consent is illegal.

Honestly if the people who made the material have no issue with it being online for people to enjoy without being downloadable I do not see a problem. However if the owners of the material do have issues it should be taken down and people should not be accessing that content.

The reason I believe so, well people can profit from you just visiting a site, and when your making money off of something you didnt create or help create and do not have permission from them to do so then its wrong. If your one that visits the site often your encouraging them to continue to do so, which places you in the wrong!!

Thats my uneducated take on it!!
 
Well thats all well and good, but let me point out another interesting aspect of it. Say a tv company allows you to watch content on their website (tv shows from previous days that you missed) now what would the harm be if you hosted that content on your site as well. You may make money off of it but you're also saving them money that they're spending on the bandwidth all of the users that would've went to their site to watch stuff now went to your site. So yeah you're helping create less of a burden on their servers. I don't really think they care about bandwidth though they still want the traffic going throught their servers so they can regulate it regardless of the cost.
 
Well the problem is that you get a profit out of it...

TV Shows are paid by the TV Channel who gets the money from the commercials. You, who did not buy the Show, get money and spend it on your bandwidth. The real problem is with movies and long TV shows... It cost money to make and if people are getting/seeing it for free (no commercials or just 0$) where does the money come from to pay the actors and those who worked on the movie? Some people say that they have more than enough money to produce movies but at the rate of today's movie "stealing" (sorry for my English) I don't know if it will survive another 10 years...
 
Movie and television producers will never fall into hard times, at least in my opinion. They make an astounding amount of money, half of which goes towards future endeavors, but the other half is pocketed. So I really don't see a problem with streaming or torrenting Tv shows. The commercials that are so important and the reason you can watch TV free are redundant as well, I've never bought a single thing based off a commercial, and never will. They're annoying most of the time, and put me off, so the companies are working against themselves regarding people like me.

Movies on the other hand, aren't free, you pay money to watch them. But I rarely, if ever go to the movie theaters, and I've never bought a dvd.. The only thing I've done is rent, and even then scarcely. So what's the difference between me never watching a movie, and me torrenting said movies to watch? The companies lose no money, I would've never gone to the theater, or purchased the DVD. How can they be worse off? I haven't hurt them, I haven't stole (IMO). I merely downloaded some data to my HDD, and deleted it when I was done with it.

My points seem moot though, especially considering the hellbentedness of the MIAA and RIAA. They consider digital pirates thieves, the shake their fists at us and devise ways to put us behind bars for longer than a child molester! They're even pressuring congress to enact a kindergarten "anti-piracy" curriculum, they say that after people reach a certain age, their morally correct points fail to reach them, so they want to implant their version of "right vs. wrong" into the open mind of a child. How dastardly!

I got my points, and I'm sure anti-pirates supporters have theirs, I'm not arrogant, I listen to the issues and create my own views on certain subjects. These views dictate my actions. I don't think unkindly of those opposed to pirates, because I can see they're points, when they make sense. But hell If I'm ever going to throw away my perception of "moral-correctness" and "right vs. wrong" just because big business tells me to. Argh. :)
 
Last edited:
see, the reason there are so many people that pirate is because companies tend to be over protective and over controlling of their content. If movie and music companies had their way you'd pay everytime you view or listen to their content no matter where you are or what you are using to use the mdeia. If thats not enough they'd prefer it if you bought your snacks from them too so they can charge you 6 bucks for a bucket of popcorn.
 
Yeah, there's no doubt the industry needs a change, it would certainly reduce their phobia of piracy, as it would definitely reduce piracy. I don't do those things because of the industry standard though. I do so because I'm poor (:D), and would rather spend the rest of the paycheck on electricity or groceries than a TV season of -insert here-. Sure, overtime and second jobs are fun, but not my cup of tea.
 
Well if you look at it from their point of view, they've worked really hard and nobody can live without money. This is how the world goes, you do something everyone likes, you get rich. Now saying that since they have a lot of money, they don't care about a few stolen copies of their work is actually (sorry to say this way) stupid. I make websites, I'm not famous, never made any money out of those but if I catch someone using my work freely, I'll be really mad at them.
I think how rich the movie industries is shouldn't be an argument, stealing is stealing...
That's my point of view...
 
And that there, is best point. Stealing is stealing, that's what I've been taught my entire life, and I've never stole before this, ever. That's what makes me stop and think sometimes.. What am I doing? Whether or not it hurts anybody, whether or not you steal from the rich, isn't it wrong? I would've believed it full heartedly even a year ago. But no, The side of me that thinks; If don't do this, the chance will probably never happen, seems to win out most the time. It's weird, cause we've been poor all my life, lived in trailer parks, sub standard, city funded villas (what we called a "ghetto", and that is what is was"), and I've never had much at all, even Christmas consisted of a black garbage bag full old toys from a city-Xmas-program. I've never been privileged, and though I don't feel bitter towards the fact, mostly because I realize people get it worse, I still want. For me, and my own. I want my lil' bro to watch the movies he always gets excited about, but never watches. My mom can watch some sappy girl movie, that I hate. It not justified because I do it for them, i know, but I've forgone the romantic pleasantry of a good world, cause most of it ain't, I just give in. I've stopped daydreaming, and woke up, what I'm doing can be considered a minor, minor contrivance compared to other evil things done these days.

Ugh, I sound self-justifying. It's pirating, stealing, and I make no illusions. But if anything, I see it as pirating with a good underlying reason; to bring joy to me and my family. And the pre-mentioned opinion that it hurts no one is the reason it continues. I could never knowingly hurt someone, or even put someone in a bad situation, Cause I'm a good guy, just immature, and somewhat stupid. 0.o
 
well the day you'll get caught, yes this can happen, your family ain't going to be happy... I'm sure you can ask friends to borrow some DVDs... but anyway, the problem isn't coming from the "poors" it's coming from the rich, middle class and the poor. I know a lot of extremely rich people who still download (I should say steal) movies.
 
Getting caught isn't really a fear. I dunno why, i've talked about it with the family, they don't like the idea, obviously, it's just complicated, hard to put to words. Just live, be happy with the time I've got, it may be related with my absolute disagreement with doctors, it sounds weird, but I haven't visited one for so long, too my mothers distress. I swear i am totally from the wrong timeline, if only I were born 100 years ago! :D

Rich may be a problem, I don't understand why they'd put themselves in such a position needlessly. So much money and nothing better to do than steal movies, har. It's funny just thinking about it.
 
Last edited:
I agree that stealing is stealing but the reason so many people who would never steal anything from a store pirate things is because when you're sitting in the comfort of your own house obtaining content that you didn't pay for it doesn't feel like stealing. There is something entirely different about sitting in front of your computer drinking a cup of coffee while you're waiting for a movie to download than walking into a store with a trench coat on and loading up with movies then trying to walk out. It's the atomsphere. I'd be interested to know how many of hollywood's stars pay for correctly licensed movies and music that they carry around on a day to day basis. If they have even one illegally obtained track then you could almost say they are working against themselves by stealing from them selves. Thats kind of funny to think about.
 
ha ha, sorry if it sounds like i said the same thing as you. It took so long for me to write my post and figure out what i was going to say that you posted nearly the same thing before me. :-p Anyway i'm glad we can finally get this topic out for some healthy discussion without anyone screaming and shutting down the thread.
 
Hollywood stars don't need to pay for any music/movies... People sometime pay them to watch it, listen to it...

I watch TV Shows illegally (I think it is illegal, I get it from links on websites such as megashare, speedshare etc) and I know that I am stealing something, but since I delete it as soon as I've seen it, I don't feel bad about it. Another problem is that some people share their illegal copies. They either put it on P2P or even burn CDs, DVDs to either give it to a friend or sell it. That's the real problem, it's become a black market (do you say this in English? :S).
 
Well, i don't really agree with that because for example say george cloony wants to listen to his favorite michael jackson song. He shouldn't get it for free just because he's george cloony. He doesn't even work in the same industry. Thats like saying oh since i work for microsoft i should get free software from other companies as well. Granted they're all associated with each other, but do you see my point?
 
Lol, it's all good. You got it point blank with the atmosphere thing, i don't feel dirty at all Dl'ing a movie, though i'm sure I'd piss my pants if I actually, physically attempted to steal something. I'm no trench coat wearing clepto.

And like Benji (sorry! :D) said, you delete after you're done, sweep it under the carpet. it's gone! how? magic.

But I think celebs get alot for free. They're fricken famous, not nerdy M$ nerds :D Not things they always want.. But the things they do want they'll have to buy or.. obtain other ways. George Clooney though?! I know it was just an example. Avril, britney, uhh... and other young celebs that I can't think of are a shoe-in for this type of behavior. Getting free crap isn't the only perk of being a celeb though, they're exempt form most lawful procedure, they obviously won't get caught. There's an idea! I won't neither, should i become famous. And then i can get my underlings to DL for me... *insert devil smiley here*

What am I saying? screw that i don't want to be famous.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top