TV Shows on Website

i posted a show

[televisiontalk]

I posted the NBC season fianle of the show Surface on my website, and I got this reply on a forum:

"Everything about this site rubs me wrong and the way they sell it here. I noticed they're streaming entire episodes, and I know they don’t have legal permission. As a previous employee of surface production's, I take offense to this and first thing Monday I'm going to contact the shows producers and get those episodes off the site. I didn't bust my [censored] long hours for months on end to let these guys reap all my residuals."

What should i do? I would like to leave the episodes on (other shows are streaming the finale and i want to be a competitor.)

[deejay]

So... by "competitor", you mean co-defendant?

If you don't have the rights to publish the material, don't.

[televisiontalk]

ok thanks for the advice. I will take down the show ASAP, and try to get all the other sites posting the material to take it down so i can remain a competitor.

[walkman]

> What should i do? I would like to leave the episodes on

of course you would like to, but you have absolutely no right to do so. I can't think of a more blatant copyright violation than this.

[jdMorgan]

Uh, if the person who posted that message on your site has seen your competitors also streaming unlicensed content, and you take the content off your site and they don't, then you may not have any competitors left by Monday afternoon... Hollywood has a lot of actors -- and a lot more lawyers.

There's more to consider than 'competition.' If you are displaying this content without a license from the copyright owners, then you should consider what it might be like going through life with a half-million dollar legal judgement against you.

Dangerous game...

Jim

[televisiontalk]

yeah i removed the content and put up a statement instead. Im going to notify other websites as a favor so they dont get into legal issues.

[WaDodger]

Holy smokes. I couldn't believe what I was reading at the top of this thread.

My simple advice? Get it all off your site. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. And as far as the other, 'competitor' sites? Unless they're personal friends of yours doing similar not-so-bright things, why implicate yourself further? So you can all end up in the poor house together?

Old adage - "The first thing to do when finding yourself at the bottom of a hole is to stop digging." If I could add to that regarding this subject of blatant copyright violation, don't start digging on that piece of property again.

/shaking head

[televisiontalk]

its off the site but can i still get fined. I actually deleted the entire site that used to stream the video. However, now someone posted this and its starting to scare me:

"I've also reported them multiple times to NBC for copyright violation and I hope like Hell that they get shut down and fined heavily."

[tigertom]

If your 'competitors' still have it, and you don't, you might be off the radar.

Just a suggestion only [I have no experience of this sort of thing, thankfully]:

Check if the naughty content is referenced in
[archive.org...]

You needn't delete your entire site, just the dodgy content, then put up a robots.txt file which disallows the directory which referenced the content, then get Google to remove it from its index (can't remember how).

Oh, and don't put up a 'statement'; you're only admitting liability.

[walkman]

if you removed it, I think you're fine. Large companies, even though they can still sue you, will usually leave it at that, unless you have a lot of money....and I mean millions and millions.

[televisiontalk]

thanks

[Harry]

Once upon a time, there was Canadian site called Icravetv.com that used to do just that, because apparently, there was a loophole in the Canadian broadcasting laws that said that any show could be broadcast freely or something.

The guy tried and the American and Canadian industry ganged up on him - and he had the law to back him up. That domain is collecting Adsense revenue in a parking lot these days...