Forgive my ignorance, but I just started going on YOUTUBE.
I can type in any song or video and watch it. What exactly makes this any different than when Napster first came out? Are people going to get sued and such for posting videos on this?
YouTube and Google have deals with some major player and are negotiating others:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/061013-083554
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,71791-0.html
YouTube also has a policy of taking down any infringing material when asked. This is required by law.
Individuals who upload infringing works could be sued, or even prosecuted in some cases, but I’m unaware of any individuals being pursued so far.
YouTube’s copyright policy: What is copyright? - YouTube Help
On a semi-related note, YouTube got sued by a seller of pipe manufacturing equipment that was already using the domain name utube.com. Apparently utube’s customers weren’t looking for tampon fetish videos, and the company’s owners were tired of reading email from those who were: Utube.com v. YouTube.com | The Smoking Gun
YouTube’s policy, although carefully worded in the link you posted, is that they will take down infringing material when the copyright owner requests that it be taken down.
This is a standard policy and it is what the law requires.
While it it understandable that companies want to avoid the onus for determining what is copyrighted and what isn’t, the practical effect of this policy is that it is often difficult and virtually always subject to enormous delay to get something taken down. No company can monitor the tens of thousands of uploads a day that YouTube gets. They must wait for somebody to note the infringement and contact them.
This is not a huge hurdle for major corporations and new material. Finding the proper owner for old TV shows posted on YouTube, and they are legion, is much more difficult. Who would you notify if you saw an excerpt from an old episode of Bewitched or I Love Lucy posted?
This is not a problem limited to video. I ran across IIRC LiveJournal blogs posting a complete article written by someone as recently as 1999, with no attribution of the original author. I could not find the original author to notify, and since I was not a friend of any of the posters I could not even let them know that they were passing around a copyrighted article.
I understand that a few lawsuits are in progress against YouTube, so a court decision may result. In the meantime legitimate copyright owners are being overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the problem. My personal opinion is that this issue is a bomb waiting to explode. Now that Google has purchased YouTube, the proverbial deep pockets will make it an irresistible target.
Then we can expect the same numbskulls who today complain against the RIAA to leap onboard with their complaints against the Man putting them down. :smack:
Just to expand on the lawsuit point:
Google denies $500 million lawsuit fund for YouTube
YouTube.com Accused Of Copyright Infringement
and here’s the act that talks about takedown orders: Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act
Another difference between YouTube & Napster is AFAIK one can’t download the videos from YouTube.
Can you???
Not by design, but it’s not difficult to do so if you know how.