Hello, I recently started a business that is baasically selling multimedia players and putting in the media files into the multimedia player and charging a service fee for that.
I'm using tv shows which air in Korea, and nothing else.
But today I got a call from one of the broadcasting stations that said if I use their tv shows they may take legal actions against me.
Now, this is because there are already video rental stores in place that rent out videos with the same content, but apparently they have some kind of a contract with the broadcasting stations to do so.
So to somebody with in-depth knowledge about intellectual properties.
Is downloading recorded tv shows from a credible source and redistributing them for profit down right illegal? or is that a gray area?
I understand that for US tv shows it would be because copyright laws are more strict here.
What kind of law is there in place to prevent use of overseas media?
I ask this because when I got the call from the tv station, it wasn't a very formal C&D. Rather it went something like, just don't use our stuff, the video store people have called me. I wasn't even told how to follow up to confirm the matter or anything.
If the tv station was to take legal action? would it come in the form of a personal law suit vs. me where I'd have to just stop operations? Or would this be considered a criminal case where I would have some hefty fines and/or prison?
Because if it's the first case, I would just cease operations until a formal C&D letter comes. I've invested too much into the business and to quit now would mean quite a big loss to me.
Thank you very much for your advice
I'm using tv shows which air in Korea, and nothing else.
But today I got a call from one of the broadcasting stations that said if I use their tv shows they may take legal actions against me.
Now, this is because there are already video rental stores in place that rent out videos with the same content, but apparently they have some kind of a contract with the broadcasting stations to do so.
So to somebody with in-depth knowledge about intellectual properties.
Is downloading recorded tv shows from a credible source and redistributing them for profit down right illegal? or is that a gray area?
I understand that for US tv shows it would be because copyright laws are more strict here.
What kind of law is there in place to prevent use of overseas media?
I ask this because when I got the call from the tv station, it wasn't a very formal C&D. Rather it went something like, just don't use our stuff, the video store people have called me. I wasn't even told how to follow up to confirm the matter or anything.
If the tv station was to take legal action? would it come in the form of a personal law suit vs. me where I'd have to just stop operations? Or would this be considered a criminal case where I would have some hefty fines and/or prison?
Because if it's the first case, I would just cease operations until a formal C&D letter comes. I've invested too much into the business and to quit now would mean quite a big loss to me.
Thank you very much for your advice
