Let’s face it. The popularity of streaming has skyrocketed over the last decade. It is estimated that 220 million people in the United States will stream content in 2017. Naturally, one of the most common questions asked by people looking to begin streaming tends to be “is streaming movies illegal?” Now, before I proceed with answering this question I’d like to note that I am not a lawyer, and this is not meant to be legal advice. These are only my findings and my opinions. The law is not always clear. You are free to form your own opinions.
Streaming sources can be broken down into two categories. Authorized and unauthorized services. Authorized services have been given permission by the copyright holder to use their content. The streaming service will never need to worry about fines or jail time for providing movies and TV to the public. Some examples of authorized services include Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Authorized streaming sources usually have a monthly fee. In turn, some of this money is given to the copyright holder as compensation. Conversely, unauthourized sources have not received permission from the copyright holder to distribute the digital content. Obviously, this doesn’t seem fair..but is it illegal? Let’s take a look at the legality in Canada and the United States as examples.
To determine the legality of streaming TV in Canada. Let’s first take the legal stand point of the unauthorized streaming site. Sub-section 3(1) of the Copyright Act R.S.C 1985 c. C-42 simply states “only the owner of the copyright can reproduce the work.” Sub-section 3(1) has been further defined by 3(1)(f), which came as a result of the Copyright Modernization Act. Paragraph 3(1)(f) basically says “making copyright material available to the public through telecommunication is illegal.” Obviously, the unauthorized streaming sites have violated both of these requirements. So, any unauthorized streaming site that is directly streaming content from their own servers has clearly broken the law. However, things get a lot more complicated when an unauthorized site is only linking to servers on sites that it doesn’t own. In that case, it can be argued that the original site is not breaking the law, but rather the site which owns the servers has committed infringement. Next, lets view the legality of streaming TV in Canada from the viewers standpoint. In order to stream, small batches of content need to downloaded while viewing. This content is then deleted once it is viewed. These small batches of content have created a TON of debate over whether this constitutes copyright infringement. Section 30.71 of the copyright act deals with temporary reproductions (streaming). It states, it is not copyright infringement if:
In this case, the technological process is streaming. The copied content is necessary to the streaming process.
This is the most controversial of the three requirements. Some say that this means that streaming breaks copyright law because the purpose of the streamed content is for viewing. However, others argue that since the streaming site has already broken copyright law, the viewer is only viewing a public broadcast of the content. Which is not illegal.
This one is fairly straight forward. Streaming doesn’t involve the long term downloading of digital media. Therefore, it doesn’t remain saved on a hard drive when the streaming process has completed. The interpretations of these three requirements are up for debate. As a result, the legality of streaming TV in Canada could be argued for years. However, to my knowledge no one has ever been prosecuted for streaming free movies or TV online in Canada. This leads me to believe that the court system currently views streaming as legal.
So what about the United States. Is streaming legal in the United States? Well, for the most part copyright laws in the United States are similar to those in Canada. Title 17 of United States code section 106 outlines the rights of the copyright holder. Read the rights for copyright holders in Canada above for a basic overview of American rights. However, there is currently no United States code outlining the legalities of temporary reproductions (streaming) digital content. Many attempted bills have been brought to congress, but all have failed. This hasn’t stopped copyright holders from pursuing action against streamers under other United States codes on rare occasions such as the unlawful interception of a radio communication, of the Communications Act, Title 47 of United States code section 553. Although, it should be noted that obtaining someone’s IP address to provide evidence of streaming is a major activity in itself. Which is why there have only been a few cases of legal action. In most cases, just it doesn’t make sense. So for all intensive purposes streaming is considered legal in the United States. Congress is still debating whether to make it illegal. This leaves it in a legal grey area. Prosecution is unlikely at the time being.
Android TV boxes use programs such as Kodi and Plex to access servers that stream movies and live TV. Therefore, the same laws apply whether you are streaming from an unauthorized streaming website to your computer, or on an Android TV box to your TV. So are Android TV boxes legal? Yes, as long as you configure them to stream content, not download it. If you choose to save content directly to the streamer’s internal hard drive you are actually breaking copyright law. This is true no matter what country you live in. So what is the government’s view on Android TV boxes? Check out this video of former President of the United States, Barack Obama’s view on Android TV boxes! Please let me know what you think about the legality of streaming. Also, leave a comment if you hear about any cases involving copyright infringement against individuals that are streaming. This kind of information will benefit everyone!
