Copyright law

[Pete_1]

Could anyone provide me with any information about copyright law in regards to you-tube?

Specifically if a user creates a video with a copyrighted song playing in the background?

The reason I ask this is because sites that offer legal music streaming (for which the artist gets paid for per listen) such as www.last.fm offer you-tube videos of the same music. I dont know the deal with this, but I think the artist themselves upload the videos.

Is it ok for me to watch them?

please don’t guess if you dont know

peace,

 

[drafdog]

This forum cannot be relied upon to offer credible advice on law. Contact a lawyer who specializes in copyright law. The local or state bar association will recommend some names.

Matthew

 

[Joe_5859]

Could anyone provide me with any information about copyright law in regards to you-tube?

Specifically if a user creates a video with a copyrighted song playing in the background?

The reason I ask this is because sites that offer legal music streaming (for which the artist gets paid for per listen) such as www.last.fm offer you-tube videos of the same music. I dont know the deal with this, but I think the artist themselves upload the videos.

Is it ok for me to watch them?

please don’t guess if you dont know

peace,

Have you tried emailing You Tube with your question? If anyone knows the legality of it, they certainly should.

As for whether it’s okay to watch them, that seems to be a moral question rather than a legal one. This is just my opinion, but I don’t think it’s up to us to have to sort through which videos may have been uploaded legally and which ones were uploaded illegally. In most cases, it is impossible for us to even find out that information. If the website is hosted in the US (as You Tube is), they should be making every effort to follow US copyright laws, whatever they are. Thus, from a moral standpoint, I would think you would be safe in assuming that a video has been legally uploaded until proven otherwise.

This answer only attempts to address the moral responsibility. I have no idea what the law says, though I can’t imagine copyright law holding responsible people who simply watch videos that, in good faith, they have no reason to believe were illegally uploaded.