Re:Willing to identify? (Score 1)

How about simple theft? The shows in question weren't broadcast or otherwise distributed to the general public in some fashion by Fox. If these shows were posted to YouTube after they aired, then copyright infringement would be pretty much all that Fox would have as legal ammunition. However, someone illegally removed (stole) these shows from one of the production facilities.

Actually, I'm fairly certain that copyright infringement IS all that they have to charge him with, unless they start getting creative. If I remember correctly, these episodes showed up on bit torrent and the usenet groups around 2 weeks before they aired. A day following their airing they released dvds of the eps for sale and rental.

I don't know for certain what the situation was in this instance, but what I can tell you is that many retail and rental outlets can get these discs anywhere from 2-3 weeks prior to their release, so chances are that's how they were obtained, and probably from several sources. HE probably just got them off of bit torrent and uploaded them to youtube because apparently that's the cool thing to do.

Even if he was the one that actually released the material, I think the most you could charge him with is C.I. (if it was a rental item he ripped it from) or Theft from whatever store he works for if he took something out of the stock room and had to open it in order to do this. Either way it's a sensationalist headline, YouTube's just following the law. Even if there was some room for argument, they're already on the edge of being smashed by lawsuits... why would they want to provoke something based on this fairly straightforward case? When you're in their situation you've got to pick your battles, and this isn't one of them.