Legality of hotlinking copyright material

[jedikevin20]

Since this is gonna be a hot topic for next couple fo years i wanted to get some peopls opinions on it. not naming names but in the last year, websites have been taken down for linking copyrighted material that was found at video hosting sites such as youtube, peekvid, etc etc. I've been trying to find out the legality of some of this and came across that it is 100% illegal to have a website in US that has this. ( 3 rulings such as Universal
Studios vs Reimerdez, Comcast vs Hightec Eletronics and Plaintiff Intellectual Reserve vs Utah Lighthouse Ministries) I'm still trying to figure out why it would be illegal as the person with thus website does not actually host any of the files. Also it seems to me that the major companies are the ones being let off free. For instance, If I decided to make a website linking videos from google video of infringed items. Oh snap government comes after me but google who is actually hosting these files is not held reliable. Even the legality of this seems very Grey. As many would know there is no clear cut "yes or no" that this is illegal or not. I mean search engines do the same thing but they have a exemption clause with Safe Harbow laws. This makes it really confusing to me. Big google and youtube etc work on this premiss and tend have a good bit of illegal videos pop on their site but since they work as "search engines" they have major exemptions. Offcourse companies take down things that are illegal but this whole battle here just confuses me way to much. What do yall think?

[bah]

Those with the money, buy the polliticians, who make the laws. It's quite simple really.

Personally I don't agree that linking to something should be illegal, but in the age of bittorent you have media organisations grasping at straws, buying overly broad and harsh laws in order to cover their business model.


Blaming google for having a link to something is like blaming a kitchen knife manufacturer if someone uses their knives to stab someone or a mobile phone provider if some bad people use their network to set off a bomb. Google employees don't upload the copyrighted videos to youtube, users do.

They have to be seen (enough to satisfy the courts) to be 'actively working to remove' said copyrighted works to keep other companies lawyers off their backs.


On another note: Spacing and paragraphs make your ideas easier to read.

[ExcruciationX]

"Those with the money, buy the polliticians, who make the laws. It's quite simple really."

Such a sad fact...