To stream or not to stream?

TODAY, APPS that facilitate livestreaming are extremely popular. Streaming has, for some time, been considered a grey area as unlike downloading, it merely provides access to material, not a permanent copy. However, among the bundle of rights granted to copyright owners is the right to “authorise any communication to the public of the work by wire or wireless means, including making the work available for access by any member of the public from a place and time determined by the member of the public”. Streaming, whilst it does not provide the user with a permanent copy of the work (as a download does), is, nonetheless, making the work available to the public and is therefore copyright infringement by the person who has made the stream available if it is done without the permission of the copyright owners.

The key factor, therefore, is the source from which you are streaming. There are a host of legitimate platforms from which you can stream copyright material with no fear of infringement – Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple iTunes, Hulu, Google Play and Vimeo are just a few examples. There are many others that are free to use, such as Crackle, Popcorn Flicks and TubiTV. Streaming from an illegal site – one that has no licence to make the material available to the public – is also copyright infringement.

Technology provides seemingly limitless opportunities to access and use copyright material. By all means, make the most of those opportunities, always having at the forefront respect for the intellectual property rights of others. Respect for intellectual property is a moral and legal issue. Our creatives depend on the work of their hands for a living. If we steal their work, we not only hinder them as individuals, we hurt the industry and the economy. Let’s build each other. Let’s respect each other’s intellectual property!

– Jamaica Intellectual Property Office