Legality of WATCHING movies, TV shows, music, etc. online?

[osbourne]

Excuse me for the wall of text.

Now, it has been my understanding that the definition of copyright infringement was downloading, purchasing, and/or redistributing copyrighted items, such as music, movies, TV shows, books, etc. This website comfirms this under the subheading "What is copyright infringement?":

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-definitions.html

and also

http://www.youtube.com/t/copyright_what_is

With that being said, I've been asking tons of people about whether or not simply WATCHING such things would be illegal. I've been getting mixed answers, from both attorneys and non-attorneys. What I need is a definite answer.

The three main things people have told me are:

1) When you watch a copyrighted video, it is automatically downloaded to your computer, and can be viewed as copying the material.
- That, to me, makes no sense. If this was the case, every video on YouTube, Veoh, Myspace, Facebook, and so on would be illegal to watch. For example, if you go on YouTube and simply watch the advertisements they have at the top of the home page, that video would, in the same effect, be downloaded to the viewer's cache, which would thus be "making a copy" of it and would be a form of copyright infringement. That goes for every other video on the website; if someone uploads a video, say of someone playing with their dog, and someone watches it, that video would be downloaded onto the viewer's computer and "copied", which would let the uploader have the right to sue every person who watched that video for copying it. And, even though I haven't read the entire Terms of Service policy on YouTube, when I looked over it, I didn't see anything saying people had to agree to the terms of people "downloading" their videos, as in just watching it. When you SAVE the video, whether it be for rewatching or redistribtributing, it's entirely different.

2) You'd be an accessory to the crime if you watch it.
- How? As stated in the definition of copyright infringement, "copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner." I'm neither reproducing, distributing, performing, displaying publicly, making a derivative of the work, or even helping anyone do it; all I'm doing is watching it. So then, how could I be an accessory if I'm no literal part of the crime? E.g. If I go over to a friend's house and he's watching a bootleg movie, and I decide to watch it with him, how would that make me an accessory--or even a liability--for him actually bootlegging the movie?

Also, contributory infringement could not apply, since, like I said, it would only be viewing.

http://www.chillingeffects.org/piracy/question.cgi?QuestionID=268

3) You'd be stealing from the copyright holder.
- That's more of a matter of ethics. I'm not a thief; never have been one, and never will be. That's the whole reason I want to know the answer to this; the last thing I want to do is break the law. The Bible says to "pay Caesar's things to Caesar, and God's things to God" (Mt 22:19). Therefore, I just need an answer on the legality of this before I make a choice.

Someone please help me with this, for it's been bugging me for almost a week now. If another attorney or someone who's well-grossed in law and/or copyright could answer this, please do.

[ammi]

As you've found out, even the 'experts' and 'attorneys' don't know. So, I'll give you my opinion

Since you don't have access to the copyright release notice and can't know if the website has a copyright release, you can't be held responsible for VIEWING the video or other entertainment media (music).

However, if you download them and/or allow access to them from you computer either online or just in your home, you can be held liable unless you have the copyright release notice.

That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

[curran]

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