My standard caveats apply (this is not legal advice, I am not your lawyer, etc.) plus the additional "I don't do intellectual property law" caveat. But all that said...
At least some of the YouTube stuff is arguably fair use-- short excerpts and the like. Full episodes wouldn't be covered, of course, unless they've been authorized by the copyright holder (which I think sometimes happens).
The argument that their servers are in Russia, therefor they only need to comply with Russian copyright law may or may not be true for them. But there's no reason to think that it makes it legal for you to use the service. If they don't have the permission of the copyright owners, and it sounds like they almost certainly don't, it seems likely that it is illegal for you to use the service.
That said, there is a difference between illegal and unethical. People can reasonably disagree about what sorts of conduct with regard to downloading copyrighted TV shows (etc.) they consider to be unethical-- I personally have a fairly high standard, but you may disagree. One thing to think about is whether this really gets you that much. For the most part, I can netflix (or watch on the networks' websites for current season shows) most shows I want to see with a fair degree of ease. Sometimes I have to wait a couple months, but . So it may be worth considering whether you get enough value out of it for it to be worth even a minor ethical dilemma.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 12:18 am (UTC)At least some of the YouTube stuff is arguably fair use-- short excerpts and the like. Full episodes wouldn't be covered, of course, unless they've been authorized by the copyright holder (which I think sometimes happens).
The argument that their servers are in Russia, therefor they only need to comply with Russian copyright law may or may not be true for them. But there's no reason to think that it makes it legal for you to use the service. If they don't have the permission of the copyright owners, and it sounds like they almost certainly don't, it seems likely that it is illegal for you to use the service.
That said, there is a difference between illegal and unethical. People can reasonably disagree about what sorts of conduct with regard to downloading copyrighted TV shows (etc.) they consider to be unethical-- I personally have a fairly high standard, but you may disagree. One thing to think about is whether this really gets you that much. For the most part, I can netflix (or watch on the networks' websites for current season shows) most shows I want to see with a fair degree of ease. Sometimes I have to wait a couple months, but . So it may be worth considering whether you get enough value out of it for it to be worth even a minor ethical dilemma.