Youtube linking

[Don]

After seeing that Arnel's site is down and members were sent emails not to upload any Journey songs from any Journey albums, I wanted to see what the deal was with linking to exterior sites. Check this out.

1.Material that violates the copyrights of others per contributors' rights and obligations should not be linked. Linking to websites that display copyrighted works is acceptable as long as the website has licensed the work. Knowingly directing others to material that violates copyright may be considered contributory infringement. If you know that an external Web site is carrying a work in violation of the creator's copyright, do not link to that copy of the work. This is particularly relevant when linking to sites such as YouTube, where due care should be taken to avoid linking to material that violates its creator's copyright.

So from what I gather, if you link to a video that is not put up by the band or its publisher, you may be in violation of copyright. Are there any media lawyers out there who can tell me if I am right or wrong with my analysis?

[Andrew]

Linking to something is not the problem of the "linker", but rather the site carrying the actual material. Sounds strange to me...

[Ehwmatt]

They do that over at another music forum I lurk on once in a while, mikeportnoy.com. I don't get it either. Doesn't seem like your problem unless you uploaded it to said linked site?

[Deb]

Just noticed WMG is taking down all their bands official music videos. Went looking for Mr. Big's Take Cover vid the other day to show somebody and noticed all their videos are gone except all the live stuff, and EM's music videos, etc. Universal must have struck some kind of deal with youtube, cause it looks like they have all their bands videos uploaded (in great quality) themselves.