Slippery slopes

An interesting article from ars technica popped up in my Twitter feed today (thanks to @LaughingSquid) about the Motion Picture Association of America’s position that embedding content (that is hosted elsewhere, but that violates copyright) can be deemed copyright infringement.

Now, think about that for a minute.

How often do you embed videos on your Facebook profile? On your blogs? On your Twitter feed? How often do your students do it?

“Numerous websites embed content from third parties they have not personally inspected. Under the theory articulated by Grady, and supported by the MPAA, these websites would be responsible for this content, exactly as if they had stored it on their own servers. This could create a serious disincentive for sites to allow users to post embedded content, hampering the convenience and user-friendliness of the Web.”

Something worth thinking about and talking about and worrying about. I rely heavily on video hosting tools like YouTube and Vimeo for my teaching and learning. The ease of sharing is what makes these tools great and so very useful. Despite SOPA being defeated, keeping the Internet free continues to be a battle against organizations that see this technology it as a threat to their relevance.

It is true that there are sites out there hosting content just so people can freely consume without having to pay for it nor download it (I’ve seen my students watching entire episodes of TV shows this way). However, a decision to view embedded content in this way could have far more reaching consequences than intended.

MPAA: you can infringe copyright just by embedding a video