This is probably more a matter of opinion than a straight out GQ, but I need some guidance from the Dope.
I am a moderator on a gaming message board. We are strongly anti-piracy and do not support links to any download sites that violate copyrights, whether for games, TV shows, movies, etc. We had a member post linking to a site called Videostic where people can stream movies and TV episodes to their PC for free. This site has links to such current shows as “24”, "“Bionic Woman”, and “Boston Legal”, from all kinds of U.S. broadcast and cable networks. I am not going to link to that site and I’m afraid I don’t want to be more specific about it so I don’t tread on legal dangerous ground. This site claims to be legal, but I realize that just because they claim legality doesn’t actually mean they are.
My question is this: I realize as a moderator of this other message site, I do have the right to remove any post I deem to be in board violations. If a link to such a site were to be posted here, would it be removed? For any of you who moderate other message boards, would you remove a link to such material?
Definitely not 100% legal - definitely in the gray area or worse. Their defense seems to be “Well, we’re not actually hosting the files, just linking you directly to them…”
A legitimate streaming site would be highly specialized (ala only shows from a certain broadcaster) or run by a company large enough to negotiate with various networks to get a variety of shows (e.g. Apple). This site fails both tests, and is filled with ads, to boot.
I’m pretty certain that such a post here would be deleted.
If I were a moderator given those criteria, I would say it breaks the rules as well.
Thanks. That was my initial reaction, too. A legal site would more likely be that of the original network, like NBC for “My Name Is Earl” or Fox for “House”. Or as you said, iTunes, which would charge a modest fee. This looks like a site similar to TV Links, which was shut down even though they didn’t host the streams, just linked to other places that hosted them.
Anyway, I removed the link from the site under the presumption that even if it’s a gray area, it’s still not a 100 % legal material provider. As I said, we’re 100 % anti-piracy, and against any kind of explicit or presumed copyright violation.
Yeah, especially given this disclaimer: “We are not hosting any content. We are not liable for external contents which uploaded by uses of various websites and embeded or linked here. We will provide the source of all the contents on request. For Further details contact us on <address>”