Can links be outlawed?
p2pnet.net News:- In August, a heavyweight associated with a major Canadian political party threatened p2pnet with a nasty lawsuit unless we took down links to a site mentioned in another law suit. This person also demanded information about the publishers of the site we’d pointed to.
Then we received a snail-mail letter from his a lawyer making the same demands.
p2pnet refused to cooperate. We can’t for the moment go into more detail because we haven’t yet had a response to our refusals and we mention it only because demands being made by individuals and companies wanting to censor the Net by forcing sites to take down links look like becoming a major issue.
QuicksilverScreen simply links to DailyMotion, Google Video or YouTube, depending on who’s hosting the content they want to provide (basically episodes of lots of TV shows), says a Techdirt post, going on:
… it appears that Fox sent off a cease & desist letter to QuicksilverScreen (found via Digg). At this point, the legal situation becomes even fuzzier. QuicksilverScreen isn’t hosting the videos. They’re not even embedding the videos in their site. They’re simply linking to them. You would think that shouldn’t be illegal at all, but again, you have the possibility of the new standard of “inducing infringement” coming into play. There’s also famous 2600 case that suggested there are situations where linking to illegal content would also be illegal.
This is worrisome for a variety of reasons. First of all, you have no control over the content you’ve linked to. You often have no idea of the legality of that content and it’s possible that the destination content could change at any time. You would hope that courts would take that into account, but it certainly seems like a risk. However, if you take this to a logical extreme, it gets ridiculous. If it’s illegal to link to illegal content, then you’ve effectively said that Google is illegal. And where is the limit? Above, I link to the QuicksilverScreen site, to their posting of the cease & desist from Fox. From that page, you can easily click through to videos of lots of TV shows hosted on other sites. Have we broken the law by linking to them as well? Has Forbes broken the law, since they linked to QuicksilverScreen in their article as well?
More recently, QuicksilverScreen’s owner disregarded a letter from Fox which said linking to copyrighted TV shows on the net is illegal, says WebTVWire’s IPTV Guy.
It said, On behalf of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and/or its subsidiaries and affiliated companies (hereinafter collectively referred to as ‘Fox’), I am writing to notify quicksilverscreen.com of the infringement of Fox’s intellectual property rights in the above listed television series on the http://quicksilverscreen.com/ website and to demand that quicksilverscreen.com take immediate action to stop such infringements.
When QuickSilverScreen’s owner approached the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) asking for help, he was told by the EFF’s Fred von Lohmann, “QuickSilverScreen may in fact violate US law,” and that the EFF couldn’t represent him, says the story.
“If it is illegal for me to link to copyrighted content is it also illegal for me to write down the web address and give it to my friend?” – wonders IPTV Guy. “If I can’t communicate it on the internet then surely I can’t communicate it offline either.”
And, “It opens up a pretty dangerous can of worms when you outlaw linking to any type of content, rather than focus on those who actually have uploaded the content,” says Techdirt.
(Thanks, Mel)
Also See:
Techdirt – Is Linking Or Embedding Infringing Content Illegal?, December 1, 2006
WebTVWire – TV Show Directory QuickSilverScreen.com Threatened by Fox, December 7, 2006
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December 8th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
in germany this is already the case.
you are not allowed to post links to slysoft’s anyDVD because this software is able to circumvent copyprotection.
Thanks go to the MAFIAA and their buying of german politicians with the german copyrightlaw.
See Heise vs. Musicindustry http://www.heise.de/heisevsmi/ (german) Heise lost in both lower courts and was going before the Federal Constitutional Court
December 8th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
seems one of this 100$ 3rd world country boy is solving the turing test and spams every recent posting from you!
Check all the others. I’m not going to ark them all now!
–
Alter_Fritz
December 8th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/14/oz_hyperlinking_trial_verdict/
December 9th, 2006 at 12:22 am
I’ve run across several index sites that linked to youtube type pages. They seem to get taken down very quickly. I guess a C&D letter is enough intimidation for most site operators. It’s kind of like the content industry is saying, “We don’t like that camel, so let’s kill the flies that are buzzing around it”. WTF good does that do? Just another PR black eye for the big studios who we all love so much already…
December 9th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
I love the simple yet genious way he defeated the problem: he removed the links and left the URLs. Now all the user has to do is to copy&paste the links from the text boxes.
-LW-
December 9th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
Let’s face it. Links that are posted on news sites or blogs so people can purposefully (mis)use it is a way to support illegal activity. Even when it comes to forums, moderators need to weed out flamers and people who post links to torrents and the like. Neowin, for example, may talk about piracy, but whenever people post links, they receive warnings and their posts are removed.
Sites like Google are less accountable because their intention is to search for content, but sites that are blatant in their intention to break the law (like this site) are going to attract more attention because of the nature of the site.
YouTube, on the other hand, are attempting harder than ever (but far from entirely) to remove copyrighted works. When they are given cease and desist letters, they comply. When sites refuse to desist their content, they are going to face the consequences.
Jon Newton, if you want to avoid another lawsuit (so you can feed your family), I highly suggest removing the link. It’s not worth it. As much as I hate the law, especially when it comes to copyright and RIAA, sometimes we need to back down so we can continue what we do. You are already fighting one law (Kazaa vs you). Focus on fighting that one, because if you fight both, you might not even be able to fight both.
December 9th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
This post above this one is exactly why making links regulatable is such a bad idea. You always have someone willing to take advantage of it. Not necessarily as the law intended they be used but for SLAP purposes.
Now I have no idea if this is someone with an axe to grind (which from the text of the messages might read to be the case) or whether there are other reasons. The poster doesn’t make that really clear other than the threat that comes through very plainly. One could suspect that an interested party is using veiled references to suggest such. It is plainly a threat as it very purposely mentions putting Jon’s family’s well being as a target. It’s a shame you don’t have the ability to trace ips and hunt logs. This one might well be one to peruse through the criminal threat of such.
December 12th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
It’s just our pet troll Gachnar, pretending to be someone else.
He has a real hatred of this site ( Why ? no one knows )
and is as easy to see as a gorilla in lingerie.
He’s obsessed with Jon and wants to see this site
destroyed, but he’s also about as powerful as a gnat.
Ignore him, mock him, just don’t take him seriously
December 25th, 2006 at 8:49 am
Fox are idiots. linking is the same as telling someone where something is. Fox of course don’t have a leg to stand on with this crap. They are trying to say that QSS violate law because they link to popular sites like youtube dailymotion and google video. Well if theres something that shouldnt be there that is being linked to then they should take it out with them.
Why don’t they?
Because these sites know Fox are talking out of there ass and these sites operate within the law. They just see QSS as an easy target. Fat cat fox can kiss my erm.. bum. Go QSS guys, you kick ass
December 25th, 2006 at 8:51 am
Btw I didnt see a link to this site (or is that because of the fox worries)
Here it is and if I shouldnt have posted it then please remove it. Thanks and this site rocks, long may it live.
http://quicksilverscreen.com/