Broadcasters must take care to get the right...

Broadcasters must take care to get the right permissions before obtaining content from the Internet and using it on their own websites, a broadcast attorney said. “Just by posting a picture, video or other content on the Internet does not mean that it is free for anyone to appropriate and use,” said David Oxenford of Wilkinson Barker. “In recent months, we have seen many lawsuits filed against broadcasters, including against some of the biggest broadcasters in the country, over improper use of photographs found on the Internet,” he said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1c6S8no). While it’s true that some websites allow materials to be shared by the site or within it, “exploiting that material outside of the confines allowed by the site on which the material is posted, or in circumstances not contemplated by the terms of use of the site on which the material is used, can lead to issues,” he said. This is especially true when the content is reused in a commercial setting, “like the website of a business like that run by a radio or TV station,” he said. Linking to the content needs to be done carefully, he said. “If you remove the need to go to the site to which you are linking, you are asking for trouble.”