By now, most people know that downloading a torrent of a copyrighted file usually means you are pirating. But those that simply embed a video should be warned from now on too. According to the MPAA embedding a copyrighted video equals piracy. Yes, you've read that right. In other words, the MPAA believes that there is no difference between having infringing content on your servers and embedding it.
A porn studio has sued a video hosting site for harboring illegal videos that users had uploaded and the case is now going to the appeals court. Earlier the judge ruled in favor of the porn studio. And now the MPAA has send a letter to the judges, stressing to stick with the ealier ruling. According to the MPAA there are a lot of sites are embedding copyrighted videos, make money of them with advertisements while having hardly any costs for e.g. hosting of the videos and licensing the content. In the MPAA's view, anyone who has a website with an embedded link to infringing content and makes that content viewable to users, is infringing copyright in the process.
As there are many websites who make use of embedded content, that has not been screened by it's owners, the current ruling could mean that website owners are as responsible for embedded content as much as content hosted on their servers.
