Video Upload - Best Practices?

[Mr Lucky]

And that's all I was doing, providing useful info.

Not quite the same, I was providing not only legal info but also experience of dealing with copyright claims, from both sides of the coin. As a plaintiff and as a defendant. It can be quite complex in real life once you get into litigation.

And I didn't need to add anything further because it's all there on the page I linked to:

And that page backs up exactly what I was saying.

Fair use is a defence that certainly can be used but it would be totally up to the court to accept it or not. So relying on the concept of educational fair use to justify anything is very dangerous unless you can convince a court. Which could be very expensive whether you win or lose.

If you are an academic establishment you have a better chance of course.

 

[imno007]

You're arguing for the sake of arguing now. Or I guess, to be more precise, you're arguing because in my initial comment I did not make it clear that I was not disagreeing with you, apparently.

 

[Mr Lucky]

You're arguing for the sake of arguing now. Or I guess, to be more precise, you're arguing because in my initial comment I did not make it clear that I was not disagreeing with you, apparently.

Your initial comment said "And I'm not sure why you seem bent on making an "issue" of everything." which seemed to imply you thought I was trying to make an issue of everything. That was my interpretation anyway.

[EDITED sentence due to typo and added explanation] All I am trying to do is to make it clear that educational "fair use" should not be assumed to give you the right to post or allow certain copyright content on a website. What you think is educational may not fit within the law's interpretation.

Indeed the law is there and can be a good defence if you can justify the fair use and have lawyers up for that fight. But if you are running a forum it is not going to be an easy defence. Luckily most small forums will be under the radar for such things but you never know.

 

[imno007]

Your initial comment said "And I'm not sure why you seem bent on making an "issue" of everything." which seemed to imply you thought I was trying to make an issue of everything. That was my interpretation anyway.

All I am trying to do is to make it clear that it may be dangerous to assume that educational "fair use" should not be assumed to give you the right to post or allow copyright content on a website.

Indeed the law is there and can be a good defence if you can justify the fair use and have lawyers up for that fight. But if you are running a forum it is not going to be an easy defence. Luckily most small forums will be under the radar for such things but you never know.

Eh, no, the "issue" in question, in this case, was the one of you questioning what I meant by simply providing a link, as if my link constituted some kind of counter-argument to something you'd said, and then suggesting it was somehow off topic. The link was for the OP only, and whatever you made of it after that is on you.

 

[kontrabass]

Ok @rockstarmind my two cents: I don't see any issue letting your users upload video IF you have an agent registered at the US copyright office and listed on your site under a "DMCA" policy page. BOTH are required if you're going to be sheltered by the DMCA safe harbor provision.

I say this with urgency, as we just paid $1500 to a copyright troll because we did not have an agent registered at the copyright office or on our site. The troll's bot found an obscure post with a pic of an airport lobby that was copyrighted by the photographer. Paying out was cheaper than getting an attorney involved.

I highly recommend this service: https://www.dmcaagentservice.com/dmca-diy-guide/

Once you've got that covered, if a user does upload copyrighted content and you get called on it, all you have to do is take it down in a timely manner.

 

[rockstarmind]

Thanks so much @kontrabass . I will check that out.

If my forum is just a way for my clients to upload a video to me in a private thread no one else can see, will bots be able to see that content?

 

[Max Taxable]

If my forum is just a way for my clients to upload a video

Great Nick by the way. "rockstarmind." Love it.

 

[kontrabass]

Thanks so much @kontrabass . I will check that out.

If my forum is just a way for my clients to upload a video to me in a private thread no one else can see, will bots be able to see that content?

No. If an unregistered guest cannot see the content, a bot cannot either.

 

[sbj]

If my forum is just a way for my clients to upload a video to me in a private thread no one else can see, will bots be able to see that content?

Do unregistered people have access to that node? If yes, everybody can see it, so can Google bots or whoever.

Are these in a private node, only accessible to a specific usergroup or specific members of your site? Nobody can see it. No bots, not Google, nobody. Only those people you allow to.

 

[rockstarmind]

Are these in a private node, only accessible to a specific usergroup or specific members of your site? Nobody can see it. No bots, not Google, nobody. Only those people you allow to.

Yeah, they're in a private node.

It's a small educational forum with the occasional play along progress video uploaded to my server.

 

[sbj]

Yeah, they're in a private node.

It's a small educational forum with the occasional play along progress video uploaded to my server.

Well, that could have saved us a lot of talk here , if you would have mentioned it earler.

Then you shouldn't have 0 worries. Nobody can access that stuff, even if your own members report themselves, the party who holds the copyright wouldn't be able to access the place, so making it almost impossible for them to prove anything.

 

[rockstarmind]

But it was so nice talking to everyone lol

I'm getting the DMCA stuff registered juuuuuuuust to be safe though.