Posting copyright-infringing content can lead to the termination of your account, and possibly monetary damages if a copyright owner takes you to court. Here is an outline to guide you to our policy on this.
As a general matter, Limelight TV respects the rights of artists and creators, and hope you will work with us to keep the Limelight TV community creative, legal and a great place to be, including artists and creators.
How To Make Sure Your Video Does Not Infringe Someone Else's Copyrights?
Make them yourself. Take your camcorder, 8mm or better and create. Get the permissions from a friend who made the piece. Or find some public domain content and make something with it.
Be sure that all components of your video are your original creation-----even the audio portion. For example, if you use an audio track of a sound recording owned by a record label without that record label's permission, your video is infringing the copyrights of others, and we will take it down as soon as we become aware of it.
Commercial Content Is Copyrighted
The most common reason we take down videos for copyright infringement is that they are direct copies of copyrighted content and the owners of the copyrighted content have alerted us that their content is being used without their permission. Once we become aware of an unauthorized use, we will remove the video promptly. That is the law.
Some examples of copyrighted content (although not all) are:
TV shows
Including sitcoms, sports broadcasts, news broadcasts, comedy shows, cartoons, dramas, etc.
Includes network and cable TV, pay-per-view and on-demand TV
Music videos, such as the ones you might find on music video channels
Videos of live concerts, even if you captured the video yourself
Even if you took the video yourself, the performer controls the right to use his/her image in a video unless they have signed a contract with you, the songwriter owns the rights to the song being performed, and sometimes the venue prohibits filming without permission, so this video is likely to infringe somebody else's rights.
Movies and movie trailers
Commercials
Slide shows that include photos or images owned by somebody else
Some unacceptable excuses are:
It doesn't matter how long or short the clip is, if you taped it off cable, videotaped your TV screen, or downloaded it from some other website, it is still copyrighted, and requires the copyright owner's permission to distribute.
It doesn't matter whether or not you give credit to the owner/author/songwriterâ€â€it is still copyrighted.
It doesn't matter that you are not selling the video for moneyâ€â€it is still copyrighted.
It doesn't matter whether or not the video contains a copyright noticeâ€â€it is still copyrighted.
It doesn't matter whether other similar videos appear on our siteâ€â€it is still copyrighted.
It doesn't matter if you created a video made of short clips of copyrighted contentâ€â€even though you edited it together, the content is still copyrighted.
What Will Happen If You Upload Infringing Content?
Anytime we become aware that a video or, any part of a video on our site infringes the copyrights of a third party, we will take it down from the site. We are required to do so by law. If you believe that a video on the site infringes your copyright, send us a copyright notice and we will take it down. If you believe that we have removed a video that you uploaded in error and that you are the copyright owner or have permission, you can file a counter notice and let us know. If you repeatedly post infringing content, your account will be terminated. This is also a requirement of the law.
Using Some Copyrighted Content in Your Videos
While videos that are direct copies of someone else's content are clear copyright violations, there are certain very limited circumstances in which the use of very short clips of a copyrighted video or song may have recource to the "fair use" principle of copyright law. Fair use is not a right. It is an excuse for copyright infringement and must be proved by you in a court of law not at Limelight TV.
