User submitted video content

[salva]

Hi everybody, I'm new here so first of all I'd like to say I'm glad to have discovered this great forum. Also, sorry if my english is not brilliant, I'm not a native speaker.

I'm working on a project that could fall under the category of this so-called 'youtube clones', a video community with user-generated content. This website is targeted to a very specific public, let's say people who go abroad and stay with a host family. My worries are not related with copyright issues, since the videos will be filtered before being published, what I'm actually wondering is what kind of legal issues I could face (if any), assuming that in those videos will probably appear members of the family (kids, for instance), or people that didn't give the consent to publish the video on the net.

IMO the uploader is responsible for his uploads, and after reading through ToS from YouTube, Vimeo and other similar services, I understand that these sites doesn't take any responsibility for the content published by their users (including comments), furthermore, they explicitly state that aren't able to filter the content and even that you can "expect" (it is possible) to encounter offensive material since they can't manage this issues until somebody complaints.

It's clear to me that I'll have to draw up a thorough ToS with all these issues, but, is there anything that I'm missing? Is there any violation that could lead to anything further than the deletion of the unauthorized videos from the website?

Really appreciate your time,
thank you.

[Skyymiles]

Originally Posted by salva

Hi everybody, I'm new here so first of all I'd like to say I'm glad to have discovered this great forum. Also, sorry if my english is not brilliant, I'm not a native speaker.

I'm working on a project that could fall under the category of this so-called 'youtube clones', a video community with user-generated content. This website is targeted to a very specific public, let's say people who go abroad and stay with a host family. My worries are not related with copyright issues, since the videos will be filtered before being published, what I'm actually wondering is what kind of legal issues I could face (if any), assuming that in those videos will probably appear members of the family (kids, for instance), or people that didn't give the consent to publish the video on the net.

IMO the uploader is responsible for his uploads, and after reading through ToS from YouTube, Vimeo and other similar services, I understand that these sites doesn't take any responsibility for the content published by their users (including comments), furthermore, they explicitly state that aren't able to filter the content and even that you can "expect" (it is possible) to encounter offensive material since they can't manage this issues until somebody complaints.

It's clear to me that I'll have to draw up a thorough ToS with all these issues, but, is there anything that I'm missing? Is there any violation that could lead to anything further than the deletion of the unauthorized videos from the website?

Really appreciate your time,
thank you.

I'll be honest with you. It would really depend like you said, on what that user generated content contained and how you worded your user agreement/ TOS etc. If you say for instance that you will be "screening" your user uploads, then it's fair to say that you may be held responsible for the content. If you do not and so say so, then you have a right to challenge anybody claiming a discrepancy with one of the video's hosted on your site. The best thing in my opinion is NOT to claim any responsibility or "screening" of uploads and offer a "report" link on every individual video so that viewers have the opportunity to express their concerns with the website moderators, if any and this way, come to a more diplomatic resolution of those issues involved. But yea' hope this helps.