lawsuit Articles

Ray William Johnson Throws Down Gauntlet to Maker Studios

Ray William Johnson left Maker Studios back in October 2012, and then...things got ugly. Johnson is claiming that Maker Studios is holding his AdSense account and won't give it back. And now that the original contract has expired, he says he still hasn't gotten it. RWJ to Maker: Lawyer up.

Netflix To Attack Privacy Law As Unconstitutional, Raises Further Privacy Issues

Treading water, sinking like a rock, there are all manner of swimming metaphors that could be applied to the last few months of Netflix's life. Now, they are perhaps facing a whale of a task. They are ready to challenge the Video Privacy Protection Act ...

MP3Tunes Ruling Also Opens Door For Online Video Storage Services?

A judge has ruled that MP3tunes was not in violation of copyright law, as they were not responsible for the uploading of the files that users were listening to and therefore not responsible for any pirated music that might have been uploaded. To me, this ...

Can I Get Sued For My “Fake” Video Prank? Legal Video Q&A

Just because YouTube isn't legally liable for a "bad" video on its website doesn't mean that you're off the hook for posting it! In our "Is That Legal?" video series, attorney Evan Brown explains why featuring other adults or kids in your online video without ...

PlayLater Service, DVR For Online Video, Will Surely Be Sued

This morning I read this interesting report from Video Nuze about a new online video DVR service called PlayLater. PlayLater, from the makers of PlayOn (which lets you stream video from your computer to your TV or mobile device), will let you record your favorite ...

Time Warner & Netflix Sued For Not Providing Captions On All Video Streams

I have some pretty strong opinions about online video captions--in short, I think every video creator should be using them, and for a variety of reasons. I'm actually working on an entire article about that subject, but couldn't ignore the news announcement over the weekend ...

Is My Video Legal? Parody and Fair Use in Online Video: Q&A

When it comes to video marketing, there are two legal defenses in U.S. for using somebody else's copyrighted work in your video without first receiving expressed permission, those being parody and fair use. In my continued "Is My Video Legal?" video series, I feature a ...

Can I Make Up Stories About Celebrities in My Web Marketing Videos?

What if your idea for a marketing video involved creating a fictional character, telling fictitious stories, about real people? Could you be opening yourself up to a lawsuit, even if the purpose is to be entertaining and humorous? We had one of our own followers ...

YouTube Gets Serious About Copyright Violation Education, Revamps Help Center

YouTube has been pretty good about fighting copyright violations. At least, I think so. They've worked hard to remove videos containing unauthorized clips, and they created ContentID to go an extra step in scoping out violations on behalf of certain partners. They even ban user ...

Exploring Legal Ramifications with Web Video & How to Overcome Them: Podcast

I interviewed Entertainment Lawyer Gordon Firemark, producer and host of Entertainment Law Update, and author of "The Podcast, Blog, and New Media Producer's Legal Survival Guide." In Part 1 of our 2-part Interview, Gordon shares with me some of the more important legal issues today ...

Netflix Caught up in Another Privacy Suit, Could Set Streaming Video Rental Precedent

Uh oh! Netflix is in hot water again over privacy. While their last one seemed like it was actually a problem, so much so that the company settled the suit, this one seems more far fetched. A Peter Comstock of Virginia has filed what he ...

AT&T DSL, U-Verse Bandwidth Cap Detrimental to Online Video?

AT&T has announced that they will begin capping the bandwidth on DSL and U-Verse accounts starting in May. The limits will be 150GB (landline DSL) and 250GB (U-Verse), per month. Considering they claim download speeds of up to 24Mbps that's a reduction in bandwidth of ...

Video Pirates Are Cheap, Stubborn, & Completely Unreasonable

A new study from PricewaterhouseCoopers is painting a dreary picture for television production companies and Hollywood movie studios. It seems that piracy is still a far more attractive option than even the best premium video on-demand services. Even the most aggressive plans the studios have ...

Can You Make Money From Posting Video of Other's Misfortune? Fountain Lady Fights Back

Some of you may have seen the recent YouTube clip last week of a woman falling right into a fountain at a mall while texting (now dubbed "The Fountain Lady"); which has millions of views, many duplicates, and with both YouTube and some partner channels ...

15 YouTube Copyright Tips for Content Creators & Marketers

We asked 2 respected cyber-attorneys what they would recommend for video content creators in terms of protecting their own copyrighted assets on YouTube, and what guidelines other users can follow in using "fair-use" rights content. Know your rights and responsibilities.