Legality of Embedded Media

[TeflonDon]

My site does not host any images or videos or allow any type of file uploads at all. Any media that is posted on my forum is embedded from various sites like imgur, tinypic, youtube..etc. From time to time I get emails requesting that we remove images and things like that. Being that those files are not hosted on my server (US Based btw) I've been wondering why they are contacting me and not the actual host of the image. Is this something I have to comply with?

 

[Snog]

If it's a DMCA complaint, yes you have to comply.

Understand that just because something is hosted on youtube, tinypic, etc. it doesn't mean the item isn't copyrighted.

 

[TeflonDon]

If it's a DMCA complaint, yes you have to comply.

Understand that just because something is hosted on youtube, tinypic, etc. it doesn't mean the item isn't copyrighted.

Ok, what about non DMCA complaints. Like for example someone posts something on instagram then it gets reposted on my site.

 

[SneakyDave]

In my opinion, if you are just providing a link to the image, and not hosting it yourself, you're fine, as long as the image is public where it is hosted at.

If somebody is complaining that you are providing a link to an image, then they really need to complain to whatever company or system is hosting that image, that would be the first step if there was any kind of lawsuit.

Google image search wouldn't exist if those types of requests were taken seriously.

 

[TeflonDon]

In my opinion, if you are just providing a link to the image, and not hosting it yourself, you're fine, as long as the image is public where it is hosted at.

If somebody is complaining that you are providing a link to an image, then they really need to complain to whatever company or system is hosting that image, that would be the first step if there was any kind of lawsuit.

Google image search wouldn't exist if those types of requests were taken seriously.

Any official DMCA takedown requests I receive I remove without hesitation. It's the random "there's a picture of me on your site" that I hesitate with and share your point of view on. I reverse image search the complaint picture and see its on thousands of other sites then wonder why I'm being hassled about it...I generally oblige the requests but was just wondering what the exact legalities are.

 

[SneakyDave]

The other issue is bandwidth. It is considered "stealing" a host's bandwidth if you are linking to an image, or video. That isn't a huge complaint anymore with better caching systems, but if the person complaining is accusing you of "bandwidth theft", then you might want to see if there's a solution you can agree to.

 

[SneakyDave]

Any official DMCA takedown requests I receive I remove without hesitation. It's the random "there's a picture of me on your site" that I hesitate with and share your point of view on.

If it's hosted on another site, then I don't believe the DMCA would apply to your site, but yeah, depending on the situation, my mood, and how much of a freak the person is, I'd probably oblige anyway.

 

[TeflonDon]

The other issue is bandwidth. It is considered "stealing" a host's bandwidth if you are linking to an image, or video. That isn't a huge complaint anymore with better caching systems, but if the person complaining is accusing you of "bandwidth theft", then you might want to see if there's a solution you can agree to.

I've never had a complaint like that. If they cared about their bandwidth then I would suggest to them to disable hotlinking.

If it's hosted on another site, then I don't believe the DMCA would apply to your site, but yeah, depending on the situation, my mood, and how much of a freak the person is, I'd probably oblige anyway.

I think we're still legally responsible for links to copywritten materials. I looked into that awhile ago but I'm no lawyer so who knows.