1. Is this something that the big tubes can block or would they want to?
quantum-x- 1] Yes, it's easy to block. Sites like redtube.com etc do. Do they all want to? Who knows.
--- I had no issues linking to any video on redtube.. Answer: you can try.. but there is always a work around...
<object height="344" width="434"><param name="movie" value="http://embed.redtube.com/player/"><param name="FlashVars" value="id=19403&style=redtube"><embed src="http://embed.redtube.com/player/?id=19403&style=redtube" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="344" width="434"></object>
2. Could this affect them in a way that they might have to shut down if enough people do this or will it just help them?
quantum-x- 2] Depends on the tube. See above.
--- The tubesites can still use flash ads in the player.. also using flash they can still run adds on the sites that are hotlinking (leaching) content.
the hits to the videos also count on their servers so their alexa goes up, seo can go up, and the price of ads goes up...
3. Is this legal being that the person is not hosting the stolen content and only linking to it?
quantum-x- 3] Try hotlinking childporn and see if that defense works ;)
--- True but the content its self(CP) is in question not the Copy rights or the ability to have a searchable data base to locate the content...
If linking was not a legal work around then.. well video.google.com would have issues as would the 1000's of sites hotlinking to full main stream videos...
Google its self for listing in its search results .. torrent link.. mp3's.. DVD rips... the list goes on.. let alone images in image search...
The greater loop hole is when the content is not being policed or being policed in the same manner as google and youtube do.
4. Do you think sites like this could get a lot of traffic because
http://cliphunter.com is 1,146 on alexa
quantum-x- 4] Yes?
--- hell ya...
5. How will google handle this? do you think they might stop indexing pages with embedded videos because this could litter the search engine.
quantum-x- 5] I'll leave this to someone in the know to answer
--- depends on if they are using the same text as the site that is being hotlinked from, with some programming you can hide the source location of the flv and google would not know its a hotlink.. IE play the flv being leached in your own flv player.. Currently there are no issues with getting sites that leach indexed quickly...
6. I own
http://www.biggestporntube.com which is 100% legal with all the sponsors banners on the videos pages and see it hard to compete. If someone were to build a site like mine and cliphunter put together would the sponsors have a problem with it being that it will steel traffic from the big tubes and bring it back to them even though the big tubes content have stolen shit from sponsors?
quantum-x- 6] Mixed legal / illegal tubes sites exist. They're called 'illegal' ;)
--- If tube leach site and the tube they are leaching from has illegal videos then IMO you are still left with the same base issue the site hosting the content must remove it.. doing so also removes all hotlinks.. So getting stolen content off the illegal tube is still the key.
Something to keep in is that many tube site provide the code needed to hotlink/leach the video on the same page as the video itself..