Archives 9/1/2006 |
Blog 9/21/2006 12:11am - Caught in Copyright Infringement In the past few weeks I have read quite a few stories about a web site called You Tube. Most all of the stories discuss You Tubes blatant copyright infringement on films, movies, and TV. It seems the idea is to create your own page where you can share videos. Problem is, no one seems to respect copyright laws as they are posting video that is for the most part copyrighted. The other day a young chap who I have hired to help me do some videotape editing and maintenance on my web site mentioned "You Tube" and said I should put up a page and that it would offer exposure. Between the fifty hours a day I am busy with everything else, I just don't see me finding the time. He asked me if I wanted him to put up such a site for me where I could share some of the videos I had worked on that were contained on my web site. I said sure, why not. The other day he was cleaning up old files on some hard drives and began asking me about some of the many video pieces contained on the drives. I found it somewhat bothersome that he was so interested in the origins of the videos and details of how they were made and who they were for. But being the educator I am, I gladly offered information. So he spent a day or two reformatting information and deleting old files, while working on a few updates of my web site in general. Fast forward to tonight. I was doing some work and found my phone buzzing on a table during a trip to the kitchen. It contained a message from a very talented person I have collaborated on some work with in the past. The message was rather serious and he sounded very angry. It claimed I had some video on my "You Tube" account that I shouldn't have published and that I needed to remove it. Problem was I had no "You Tube" account. Wait! I did. I remember giving permission for my computer wizard to whip me up a page on the site. So I immediately called my wizard and asked him how I could see my "You Tube" site. Of course! My account was my name. And upon entering the site, I saw that he had uploaded a number of videos. Problem is he took liberties of uploading some videos I did not have permission to use in any form or fashion nor were they even from my own site, but stuff he found on the hard drives he was cleaning that he said he liked. I explained my circumstance to him and asked him to delete the account immediately. It is troubling that many people are not aware of what copyright is. While I doubt anyone is perfect, I always try to do things lawfully. I don't think my computer guys intention was harmful. But I don't think my business associate will call me any time soon as a result. Funny thing was about a week ago I was laughing at an article I read in a newspaper which discussed how blatant infringement was on "You Tube". I couldn't believe that people were getting away with it. Turns out, I learned first hand that not everyone is, and I didn't even have a hand in it. It just goes to show me that I have to pay attention to what people are asking me instead of sometimes simply saying yes to something because I am too busy to listen. Comments (0) Add a comment |