Bootlegging Bootleggers Bootlegged - A Most Unusual Act of Piracy

[acidtone]

An interesting article has been posted about an interesting case of piracy where somebody has been reposting content on Youtube with added advertisements.

"All you have to do is visit YouTube, find a top rated video. Snag it. Open it with some consumer video editing software like iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Video Vegas, etc. Add your advertisement(s) and upload the finished product to YouTube with the same tags and title. If it was popular before you added your ad, it will be popular again. You get all of those gross impressions free!"

So i can see this technique of "spam" will most likely be appearing alot more on video uploading websites etc.

[nihil]

You are quite right acidtone, it is SPAM by impersonation.

1. "Bootlegging" is actually the supply of illegal alcohol, either because of prohibition, or non-payment of excise duty.

2. In the music industry, "bootlegging" is the unauthorised recording and distribution of a live performance.

3. If you take prerecorded material and copy it for distribution that is "piracy".

4. If you take prerecorded material and "clone" it, that is make an exact or almost exact replica of the commercial product, that is "counterfeiting".

Over here, #1 and #4 are criminal offences. #2 & #3 are civil offences.

This new form of spamming is a very grey area, except where the original upload was a breach of copyright in the first place, in which case you have duplicated that offence.

The reason I suggest the grey area is that these sites permit and encourage uploads, and have a disclaimer as to content, so they can hardly complain.

If it is the original poster's work they have chosen to put it in the public domain?

Interesting find there mate!