Being at home, alone, sick, with headache and blablabla since three bloody long days what could I do else than browsing internet all time long? Productions like “Hot Nuns 3″ are old classics 
and I needed something new. So I met the huge offer of free movies online from websites like:
66stage, with movies online even before they come out in the cinema nearby
Project – Free TV, with such a huge catalog of movies, TV serials and so on
.. and who knows what’s more out there. Interestingly, all these websites are NOT containing the movies they stream. Both sites write more or less something like this “We are not responsible for what other people upload to 3rd party sites”, as they just LINK to other websites that do physically contain the movie file.
My question is: WATCHING a stream (not downloading) of a copyright product is legal even if the copyright is not paid? Do you know the answer? Being in doubt, I don’t link those websites: if you are curious, google them out.
Discuss Biology
June 19, 2008 at 6:38 pm |
An example came to my mind. If i live close to one open-air cinema, nothing forbid me to watch the movie from my balcony, isn’t it?
Could 66stage and similar websites be considered as “my balcony”?
June 19, 2008 at 10:51 pm |
I think this is still kind of a gray zone but I wouldn’t shout it out loud.
So if there’s a copyright on it, the holder might have an interest in you paying for it – but here at first probably more in the person who is providing it.
Reading this article, you can do it in Switzerland:
http://www.heute-online.ch/wissen/play/artikel58378
In Germany, §44a UrhG (Urheberrechtsgesetz) says that temporary “caching” does not count as a copy. But I wouldn’t rely on it completely as a judge could see it differently: Even if it’s only illegal to download or upload and/or share (i.e. make copies), you do in fact create a copy while watching – as you cache the content temporarily. And you can choose to consume it or not, as on yor balcony (but you can’t compare this anyway cause somebody will already have payed for the open air cinema copy).
June 19, 2008 at 10:59 pm |
God Bless Switzerland
Firefox: Tools>Options>Privacy> Always clear my Private Data when i close Firefox>ON
I would spend a cent to watch The incredible Hulk, anyway
June 19, 2008 at 11:00 pm |
Iris:
a) You’ve pity on me
b) Robert plays every night
c) Stasia paid you
anyway…thanks a lot for your strong presence in the blog
June 19, 2008 at 11:00 pm |
Maybe this might interest you:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070627-mpaa-sues-peekvid-youtvpc.html
June 19, 2008 at 11:54 pm |
From the article you linked: “businesses should not be allowed to prosper from illicit material, even if they do not host it”. How to disagree? Making money with copyright material is illegal. But watching it?
June 20, 2008 at 12:25 am |
Anyway, I find disgusting leaving online for everyone movies like Funny Games U.S. – that are not for sure suitable for every age. Even before considering money problems, MPAA should fight for moral problems.
June 20, 2008 at 1:34 am |
It’s a legal loophole. Nobody (and no lawyer, for sure) can or will tell you explicitly that it’s legal or illegal. And the fact that it’s not in your browser anymore when you close it doesn’t mean that it has never been there, does it?
Even if it will be difficult to prove and interest in doing so more or less little. But if a movie has not arrived in the cinemas or is still shown there right now, you can realize easily on your own that watching it online might not be so legal. For all other stuff you can happily presume that the one who distributes it has the right to do so, and only then you’re save. But final jurisdiction on that is yet to come, I guess.
June 20, 2008 at 11:25 am |
Hi Iris!
Don’t you think YouTube is 90% illegal ?
Why is YouTube still on-line ?
June 20, 2008 at 12:30 pm |
Hi everyone,
I just read an article about a website similar to You Tube – called You Porn. This site showing private porn videos for everyone to watch had to close its doors even if the structure was nearly the same as in You Tube. I think that is the reason why You Tube and all the other online video streaming sites are still legal (or at least in a grey zone) is that if they show inadequate contents they interpose a warning button (something like “click yes if you are over 18″). For me this is completely stupid as it doesn’t provide a real protection for children but it is this tiny little detail that makes the difference between legal and illegal. ***ing hypocracy. Concerning the copyright question I fully agree to what Iris said but I don’t think that we can speak in terms of “legal” or “illegal” because there doesn’t exist a law yet to prevent this case. In german we say: Wo kein Kläge ist, da kein Richter” – No plaintiff, no juge.
June 20, 2008 at 1:01 pm |
Hi Daniele,
not YouTube itself is illegal. The people who upload copyright-protected material commit the infringements, not the owner (=Google) of the site. YouTube says that it is not allowed and even helps people to unveil copyright infringements:
http://youtube.com/t/dmca_policy
They also delete the respective material when they are asked to do so.
Besides, I’m sure that a lot of artists have realized in the meantime that it’s a way of promotion, too. And, most important: YouTube has already negotiated lots of licensing deals with Warner, Universal, Sony, BBC and EMI, so it’s not at all as illegal as it may seem as all the major music companies are in fact now YouTube partners.
So it would be very difficult to find a substantial reason for somebody (who will be a minority) who’d rather shut it down.
June 20, 2008 at 1:37 pm |
Hi Cori… YouPorn is still open in many other countries
It seems it had to close only in Germany….maybe because most of porn made in Europe is German and copyright laws were broken 
June 20, 2008 at 1:40 pm |
Hi Iris..then the next time I will be sick I will watch only movies from the previous years.
June 20, 2008 at 2:01 pm |
@Iris
If YouTube is now quite legal that means that
if you put on your web site one or two videos you are outlaw.
But if you put on your web site one or two million videos then …
you are legal.
I want to live in another world.
June 20, 2008 at 2:06 pm |
Come on Dany, just change the proportions of your acts. We already knew that if you kill one man you’re a killer, if you kill thousands you’re a hero!
The same principle applies to everything.
When you cannot control illegality because numbers are too high, then you’re automatically safe.
What you miss is the power to be illegal at such high levels. That’s why you want to live in another world. Why don’t you try instead changing the amount of your illegal acts? You could have benefits out of it.
June 20, 2008 at 3:11 pm |
@Lolo: Really? You Porn still exists? Wow, but I just read the article some days ago and it said that they shut it down. I am just doing a research on internet pornography for my new job and I am quite shocked. I had no idea how easy it is to watch even hardcore stuff and how difficult it is to control the whole thing. I’m feeling sick.
@Daniele: I can understand your feelings. I don’t know wether I am too naive or the world is too perverted. I am feeling bad.
@everybody: Sorry for going off topic. Online video streamings are fine and it is time that artists get become aware of this new type of consume. For me all those legal actions against up-and downloaders are like fighting windmills.
June 20, 2008 at 3:25 pm |
@Cori
A research on internet pornography for your new job? It sounds interesting
I don’t know what you need to focus on, but if you google porno for free you find thousands of things for FREE (if you don’t have access to Youporn anymore goes for myfreeepaysite …).
All these websites are without any age control. The thing was shocking me too. I wrote once to Antonio di Pietro (ex minister in Italy) about it, and his reply was that the Government cannot substitute families.
What Antonio di Pietro forgot is that families in Italy do not have ANY idea how to control and what is on internet.
Necrophilia, zoophilia, rapes, are all FREE and available to everybody. And that’s simply too much.
I have nothing against porn … but I don’t know what would have been my idea about sex if I had the possibility to watch all this material when I was younger.
June 20, 2008 at 8:53 pm |
Exactly that is the point. It is already shown that our sexual behavior is influenced or even in interplay with the products offered by the capitalist world, such as tales, advertising, films, etc. But what happens if young children are presented the whole range of perversions and abnormal behavior existing in mankind? I mean this has nothing to do with porn anymore, it’s just sick. This is so scary. And considering that I am already struggling with such images as an adult person I was really happy that I was safe from such rubbish when I was a child. It is a pity that you got such an reaction from the Italian minister. Even if you are a caring father/mother it is very difficult to control which sites your child is visiting.
June 22, 2009 at 7:32 pm |
I was worried about how i would protect my children from all this porn and smut. I tried windows parental controls but they did a really bad job. I finally found K9 Web Protection. It’s free and it works great!
June 20, 2008 at 9:01 pm |
I told you. don’t trust the Greek pervert..but you didn’t listen to me
I am sorry that terrible experience still frightens you 
I will soon write a post on this, AGAIN. i think the target must be ignorant parents and relatives. They don’t know anything about porno in internet.
June 21, 2008 at 9:48 am |
July 2, 2008 at 8:14 pm |
okay back to the original point there. is it legal or illegal to watch copyrighted content online from a source that allows you to stream the data?
July 2, 2008 at 8:30 pm |
Is it illegal to watch a movie projected on a open air cinema from your balcony? The quality is lower, like the streaming. But you don’t pay the ticket.
I’ve NO idea.
Who is breaking the copyright?
You watching or who put a copyright movie online?
August 25, 2008 at 6:34 am |
obviously it’s not illegal to stream illegal copies of movies online. How many sites that do this have banners for shit like “Circuit City” and other advertisements. These are just affiliate banners but if it’s illegal why would these banners still be up. And you could say it’s hard to regulate all those sites but if you started a porn site and put up a circuit city banner from your affiliate, you would be told to take it down.
September 9, 2008 at 12:09 pm |
I don’t know what circuit city is, and I am aware nobody was arrested for watching streaming material. However, this material is protected by copyright, and watching it without paying for it IS illegal..isn’t it?
October 1, 2008 at 1:50 pm |
nice post…
http://www.movics.org
here you can watch movies online too
good luck
October 11, 2008 at 4:58 pm |
The way I see it is this… I already patronize movies by using Netflix, buying the ones I really like on DVD, and even recommending them to others. I see streaming videos as a way for me to test the movie/TV show out out and see if I really want to purchase it on a quality medium like DVD or Blu-Ray. Fact is, streaming quality is far inferior to optical disc or cinemal mediums, so if I really like something or am anticipating its release in theaters, I will see it in the cinema and purchase it on DVD later.
June 19, 2009 at 10:50 pm |
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June 19, 2009 at 10:50 pm |
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June 20, 2009 at 3:28 pm |
1) What has to do Afghanistan with free movies?
2) Don’t you think Mousavi could be supported by some democratic West land to put Afghanistan into chaos?
3) Will Mousavi promote a change?