Copyright Infringement

[Coop]

You can say Disney but not the D word.

[Orbb]

12 hours ago, thewoodwhisperer said:

Well copyright is there and the law (however broken) can be pretty clear in some cases. I think we have a couple of good examples like the New Yankee Workshop. Great woodworking show that still has value. The people involved in making it are still alive and still willing to profit off of it. But for some reason, they don't seem to care that the content is being pirated and shared freely online. Their lack of willingness to defend their copyright means for all intents and purposes, it's public domain. Of course, legally, it isn't. Or look at Woodworks. The original owner of the show didn't care about profiting from it after it went off the air so episodes were pretty easy to find online. Once David Marks worked out a deal, he had a vested interest in getting the pirated copies taken down and delisted and while there's not a lot you can do to completely stop torrents, it's definitely a little harder to find those episodes now. Furthermore, someone is offering a legal alternative at a reasonable price, so reasonable people will generally prefer to buy than to steal. 

 

Enforcing intellectual property rights often requires litigation, and lawyers are expensive, which is why some IP rights owners simply give up.  Generally, the law allows for fee shifting so the IP rights holder gets his attorney's fees paid for by the infringer if successful, but if the infringer is overseas or otherwise judgment proof, it is money down the drain.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Orbb said:

Enforcing intellectual property rights often requires litigation, and lawyers are expensive, which is why some IP rights owners simply give up.  Generally, the law allows for fee shifting so the IP rights holder gets his attorney's fees paid for by the infringer if successful, but if the infringer is overseas or otherwise judgment proof, it is money down the drain.

I am sure that is all true, but it does seem that youtube is pretty good about responding to complaints from content owners.

My assumption is Russ Morash doesn't own a computer and has no idea that NYY is pirated on youtube (albeit generally from overseas).  The guy is 80 years old and the interns at WGBH are busy catching pokeman.  

[thewoodwhisperer]

4 hours ago, Orbb said:

Enforcing intellectual property rights often requires litigation, and lawyers are expensive, which is why some IP rights owners simply give up.  Generally, the law allows for fee shifting so the IP rights holder gets his attorney's fees paid for by the infringer if successful, but if the infringer is overseas or otherwise judgment proof, it is money down the drain.

Thankfully, you don't need a team of lawyers to issue a DMCA takedown notice. As Mike mentioned, Google gives content creators tools to remove stolen content from their sites, including YouTube. Once you're de-listed from Google, you may as well not exist for the average consumer. Thieves will always find a way but they would never have been paying customers anyway.