YouTube embeds considered illegal in Latvia

March 18, 2009 7:14 AM

Latvian copyright agency in Latvia wrote emails to over 500 local bloggers asking them to pay copyright fees for embedded YouTube videos (so far only one english post). Even more - in an interview spokesperson announced, that in Latvia YouTube is, in fact, operating illegally. If you dare to translate with google, more information can be found in latvian.
posted by laacz (6 comments total)

From the links, it sounds like they are going after the easy targets instead of trying to fight Google. It does raise an interesting question, though. Are embedded videos to be considered simply as links or as some form of hosting? In the internet specific sense of the word "hosting", they are not hosting, but in a broader sense it might be seen the other way.
posted by cimbrog at 7:27 AM on March 18, 2009

In the internet specific sense of the word "hosting", they are not hosting, but in a broader sense it might be seen the other way.

Which is the same basic issue involved in the the Pirate Bay trial, even though the circumstances are very different.
posted by burnmp3s at 7:41 AM on March 18, 2009

This is obviously an attempt to patch the gaping hole in the Latvian state budget.
posted by daniel_charms at 7:48 AM on March 18, 2009

Victor Von Doom needs money for that Doombot army.
posted by Artw at 8:51 AM on March 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

The Royalty Agencies in a lot of east European small nations were quick to realize that royalty collection could become a big and profitable racket. Here in Hungary, we have Artisjus, (danger: Hungarian language!) which will soon be adding a tax to all technology capable of holding recorded music, such as empty CDs and DVDs, mini discs, casettes, pen drives, and hard drives, beginning April 15th. This will come in the form of a tax on each item sold: about US$1 for a pen drive, and about $20 for a 160 GB hard drive. This is whether or not there is any music recorded on it.

Will any Hungarian artists recieve any of this? Some of the big ones will. The ones I interviewed for a story about this never have or only recieved small final "shut up" payouts. The Artisjus agency, however, has spanking big new offices in small provincial towns all over Hungary, the better to keep an eye on every bar or hair dresser that may be broadcasting a radio to it's customers in order to slam them with an arbitrary fee in the thousands of EUs range. They are on a level with Tony Soprano when it comes to collecting.
posted by zaelic at 10:34 AM on March 18, 2009

@daniel_charms To my knowledge, none of this money goes to state (except taxes, of course). It is non governmental organization. Law says that it can withold up to 24% of all its earnings for "administrative expenses", some money is paid to authors/rights holders, yet lots of harvested money is put on deposit in bank. It can be seen from their annual report.
posted by laacz at 12:37 PM on March 18, 2009