Justin.tv testifies before the United States Congress over copyrights
Copyrights in the age of streaming video are going to be the subject du jour for the House Judiciary Committee today.
Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel is going before the House Judiciary Committee today to testify over the rights of copyright holders in regards to the increase of streaming video piracy that has appeared on his site and others like it today. According to NewTeeVee, the United States Congress has taken an interest in the subject, especially in regards to live sporting events.
For those unfamiliar with the matter, people have been using the streaming video service for some time now to stream live television to markets it is not available in. One of the biggest uses of this trick has been with sporting events that are blacked out from television transmission in certain areas due to arrangements over rights, or sporting events that are pay-per-view like UFC bouts. Users of the site typically just point their webcams at a TV and then transmit that over the service so that anyone can come in to their stream and watch.
Mr. Seibel’s claim will be that his site is not breaking any laws due to the safe harbor portion of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that says a site should be notified of the copyright infringement by a formal DMCA request. The problem is that since the content is streaming, it is gone from the site before the form can even get to the company.
The copyright holders are claiming that sites such as Justin.tv are not doing enough to help combat the infringements and should be required to put into place more sophisticated detection systems like digital fingerprinting to help stop the infringing broadcasts as soon as they happen.
In other words, the hearings are sure to be long and tedious, but could have lasting implications for the future of streaming video on the Web.
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