Forum Moderators: not2easy
i am new to webmasterworld forums. from years i used to come here & read about varius topics related to web designing.
this time i am in a big problem so i have to start a new topic here. hope it gets solved here.
i want to run a site where hyperlinks would be given to videos/movies hosted on free hosting site like zshare.net,youtube,googlevideo,stage6.com,etc .
some time ago i was using iframes for showing movies but some media distribution company asked me to remove that. so i am now wondering Is hyperlinking to other sites' illegal or not.
should i provide links of videos hosted on sharing sites on my site with source information & anchor text as same as url.
please help me on this...
hyperlinking to other sites' illegal or not
My caveat is that I am not a lawyer, but I don't believe this violates the copyright law. I have a local newspaper in my city that is incredibly protective of it's copyrights and won't let anyone post a story they have written, but don't [or can't] object to hyperlinking to that story on their site.
I don't think there are enough courts in the land to sue everyone that has ever hyperlinked to content on another site.
However...
There are a couple of cautions:
- It may be illegal in some places to link to "illegal" content. e.g. pornography, content that advocates violence or promotes hate, etc.
- There are some laws in some places that prohibit facilitation of copyright infringement. So, while, technically, you might not be sued for infringement, you might face civil action or criminal charges for facilitating such by others.
You need to check with an attorney.
Myself, I'd put it in the category of "not worth the risk".
