In a morbid case, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority is suing YouTube for infringement because it failed to take down video of a fatal auto crash before it could be downloaded and distributed elsewhere on the Web.

If the authority wins, it paves the way for you to be potentially liable after receiving a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) infringement notice simply because someone copied the content before you could remove it from your website.

Here’s another take on the same story that makes a strong argument that YouTube is no bargain for Google because of all of the copyright infringement issues.

Moral of the story? Dot your Is and cross your Ts when putting video on your sites so that you don’t end up being sued for infringement. And if you’ve got other people in your videos, make sure you get signed releases that permit you to actually use the videos online.

About the Author

With an advanced international law degree from Georgetown University and more than 14 years of real world legal experience, Attorney Mike Young shows entrepreneurs how to protect and grow their businesses online. He's the author of Internet Marketing Legal Secrets Revealed. Not just a lawyer who focuses exclusively on Internet and marketing law, Mike’s been working with computers for more than 27 years (his first computer was an Atari 400 with 8 KiB RAM) and started representing Internet businesses back in 1996.