Linking to Youtube

[Ilja]

Esteemed administrators,

Given the questionable legal status of much material on Youtube, have you thought about what people can and can't link to on the site? I'm trying to avoid the blatant rips of commercial CDs, but the situation is less evident with live recordings. Should we avoid Youtube altogether (a shame, because there are is a lot of good unsung stuff there)?

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Ilja. Mark and I will discuss this when he's back from his trip.

[jerfilm]

I'm surely not an attorney,  but it seems to me that a simple reference or link to a YouTube site is pretty innocuous stuff.  Theoretically stuff posted there is intended for folks to sample and then decide whether to buy.   Of course, if some have the ability to download from YouTube, that of course, may be a different matter.  However, it seems to me that if we are not encouraging members to attempt to download anything from YouTube,  I would think we would be ok.

But i'll admit, it's probably a fine line.  I suppose we could, if we stumble across something interesting, simple post that fact and say if you want further information, email or private message me and I'll be delighted to elaborate......  If you don't want to answer a few emails, then just don't offer that option.

Just some thoughts..   Jerry

Jerry