Ask HN: How is justin.tv legal?

I've heard that there's all kinds of sports streamed live on it, including UFC matches.

How is this not illegal? Are they going to get shut down anytime soon?

8 comments

[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 26.5 ms ] thread

http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-justintv-kills-some-liv... - “Justin.tv has grown from a place where one guy broadcasted his life, to a place where people all over the world broadcast and watch millions of live videos. Justin.tv is 100 percent DMCA-compliant and we promptly respond to all DMCA takedown requests.”

coryl 15y ago ↗

The same way youtube is legal?

gallerytungsten 15y ago ↗

Try watching an NFL game on justin.tv. Sure, you can find one. But the majority of the links are spam and attempts to get you to sign up at some other streaming site. When you do actually manage to find a game, it will often stop without warning. So yes, they apparently do respond pretty promptly to DMCA takedown requests.

jsz0 15y ago ↗

I think it's still under the radar for the most part. I suppose as long as the big sports leagues aren't pushing the issue justin.tv has no reason to aggressively go after people streaming copyrighted material. There are services like Sopcast and TVU that specialize in live sports piracy who don't seem to be getting any attention from the big sports leagues either.

qsm 15y ago ↗

If they get youtube like popularity one day expect a horde of lawyers at their door. One thing is for sure though justintv would be deserted without the illegal streams.

mhansen 15y ago ↗

They're a safe harbour under the DMCA, as long as they respond to all takedown requests. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmca

code_duck 15y ago ↗

Youtube, according to court documents, was well aware that by far the majority of their early traffic was related to unlicensed copyrighted material. They did fine and I"m sure as long as justin.tv seems responsive to claims, they will do fine as well.

JimmyL 15y ago ↗

It's not legal - UFC is going after them (and Ustream) hard for broadcasting their streams (see http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=mmajunkie-UFC_anti-pir..., among others).

DMCA says that Justin.tv is in the clear so long as they follow take-down requests - their page about it is http://www.justin.tv/user/dmca. In a nice turn, they explain about counter-notifications (what you can file if someone has sent you a DMCA take-down that you feel is incorrect) with the same precision and prominence, and suggest that they will forward take-downs to Chilling Effects for good measure.