Many of TV programs are provided to customer for free. Thus, I think that we should make a safe harbor for allowing posting the free programs on website. First, as I mentioned above, many of TV programs are broadcasted by copyright owners of the programs for free to anyone lawfully. Second, thanks to technological advancement in communication technology, we can see the TV programs by not only television but also PCs, i-Phones or cell phones. We can also record the TV programs on the PCs, i-Phones or cell phones as electromagnetic date and restore the recorded programs on the devices and web sites such like YouTube. If we put the recorded programs on YouTube, we can see the program at anywhere with any devices which can connect to YouTube. Thus, we can use the website such like YouTube instead of “Betamax” in Sony v. Universal(1984). Third, the safe harbor does not impair a market value of the programs, because the programs are made for free program to anyone and any person allows recording the programs on videotape, DVD or HD basically. This, I suppose that free TV programs should be allowed to post on website.
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This is how I understand your position: if a copyright owner places its television show on a free website such as Hulu.com, then there should be a safe harbor if someone takes that video and places it on YouTube. (Please correct me if I am understanding this wrong.)
ReplyDeleteI think this is unfair to copyright holders because it takes away their freedom of choice. It sounds like imposing a waiver on copyright holders.
But I do appreciate your point about Betamax and how this is similar to timeshifting. I had not considered that.