Is Merely Providing Links to Copyrighted Content Illegal?

jetto

jetto

STRICTLY BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2010
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I've heard this argument and it's pretty simple. It goes like this: "well.. I'm not hosting this stuff on my website, I'm just linking to it and it's hosted somewhere else by someone else. So no problemo!"

What's the real deal on this? Theory, practice, etc.
 


-joe- said:
If this was a question that could be summed up in a thread on wickedfire, the pirate bay suits would have been over a lot quicker.
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Actually it's a lot easier then you think if the site in question is being hosted in the US. You could potentially get in trouble for "inducement to infringe" a copyright and vicarious copyright infringement.

PirateBay gets away with it because they are located in a country with extremely lax copyright laws.
 
cardine said:
Yes, but TPB is located in a country which has a political party named after it.
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They moved their servers to Germany now :) and like they say it doesn't matter how much they would be sued for they will never pay anyway :)

Yes the Pirate Party don't really talk about piracy anymore, their biggest focus is about net anonymity. But hey will never gain any serious numbers of followers anyway, to narrow political ideals.

m
 
dfkdfk said:
Actually it's a lot easier then you think if the site in question is being hosted in the US. You could potentially get in trouble for "inducement to infringe" a copyright and vicarious copyright infringement.

PirateBay gets away with it because they are located in a country with extremely lax copyright laws.
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Yeah, if you keep it all in the US, you're going down the moment the companies start caring about you. It gets complicated though when you start getting offshore hosting (as you should if you're gonna do something like this)
 
well as far as I know even in Sweden TPB operators went to JAIL. Yea it took a minute to send them there but still...
 
If your users post the links, you are fully DMCA compliant (physical address registered with the US Copyright Office), you aren't saying any thing about or on your website having links to copyrighted content, and you have a good budget for lawyers, your ok. Miss one of those those and your risking a lot.
 
-joe- said:
Yeah, if you keep it all in the US, you're going down the moment the companies start caring about you. It gets complicated though when you start getting offshore hosting (as you should if you're gonna do something like this)
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Google is US operated and links to tons of torrents, bestiality, and far worse sites; the argument isn't as simple as most think. You could get in trouble if you are making an effort to build a collection of such links (guessing here), but if you are small and the law wants to fuck wtih you, you are toast one way or another.
 
So being that he has proven income, that he was making.. If he gets off with this case, which I would absolutely hope he does, then I would think he would be in a great position to sue for millions.. Lost Revenue, Destroyed Business Model Grief, Wrongful Prosecution.

Linking to something should not take any ownership over it.

The same would be if I put a sign in my yard that says cocaine and young hookers available at 342 tae bong st, tokyo japan, buy a hotdog. That shouldnt mean that im responsible for the cocaine and hooker establishment in japan. Im just trying to sell hot dogs.
 
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