Forum Rule Change for Streams and Copyrighted Material - Please Read!

[Vladys Gumption]

6) Streams/Proxies – (UPDATED 10/17/15) Per site admins: "Links to illegal streams may not be posted. The forums may not be used to solicit links to streams." Because of DMCA issues this policy covers all threads, including gameday threads. We do not permit any discussion of illegal streaming services or proxy use whatsoever. Hockeystreams is considered illegal by HF.

To put it simply, users are no longer allowed to ask for or post streams on HF or any other illegal sites. It also includes copyright violations. That goes for GDT's as well as any other threads. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for this updated rule to be followed. The board has now adopted a three strikes rule.

Please do not hesitate to ask Easton, Alklha or myself any questions you may have. We will be happy to to answer any that arise.

Click to read more...

 

[EastonBlues22]

To add some context, these changes are the result of a policy that's recently been put in place by Crave to protect themselves from legal action after receiving DMCA notices for another forum they control. There has not yet been a DMCA notice filed against HFBoards, but there is no statute of limitations for filing such a complaint. If you have posted questionable material in the past, you might wish to go back and edit your posts.

The three strikes are accrued through DMCA complaints, not by HF administration.
A user may receive multiple strikes from a single filed DMCA complaint, so do not assume there will be a "warning shot" before permanent action is taken. The first time you learn that you have strikes could very well be the last time.

 

[KirkOut]

So if somewhere in my comment history in the last 3 years I asked for or posted a link to a stream, I need to go through my thousands of comments and edit it out or risk being b&? With HF's current interface that seems impossibly tedious to do

 

[2 Minute Minor]

Private messages are not under scrutiny, only public forum posts?

 

[Vladys Gumption]

Further information

This is still a fluid situation that could change so please be patient as we implement this new change. You are still allowed to post links that are NHL approved (aka owned by the NHL), however we ask that at the current time you refrain from posting any highlights or other links that are not directly from NHL sources.

We'll keep you updated as to how this plays out further but we ask that you cooperate with us to make this transition as smooth as possible. If you have any questions about whether a link is ok to post, please come to a member of the mod team and we can help you get it sorted out.

 

[Borderbluesfan]

Mixed feelings on this one. I hate regulation of the internet by any government agency, but then I understand companies trying to protect their copyrighted material that is important to their business. Anarchy or suppression of the internet by government??? I tend to lean more towards unregulated activity by government but there need to be safeguards to protect internet businesses. I understand HFBoards trying to protect themselves from possible legal action and pecuniary liability.

That said, I've never asked for or provided a link for streaming Blues games.

 

[Vincenzo Arelliti]

Wasn't this okay to do just a few days ago? Are those posts in danger of being reverse-grandfathered in - even though it was fine at the time?

Also, is this like the NBA and NFL banning vines? Does that mean if we ever posted a vine, gif, etc. that wasn't official NHL, that we could potentially be banned?

Maybe this isn't the best way to discuss this (should I PM about this?) but I think that these are questions everyone should have answers to.

Not trying to be confrontational - thank you for answering!

 

[Vladys Gumption]

This is a new policy that's coming down the pipe from Crave (the owners of HF). They've had issues with another site that they own so they're applying the rules to all the sites they own.

This is still an evolving situation and there may be changes to the policy. For the moment it's better to play it on the safe side and not post anything that isn't NHL official. We'll keep you updated on any possible changes, but this is all the information that we have for the moment.

Unfortunately, there is no statute of limitations on the potential issue we are talking about so old posts could be a source of trouble.

 

[Vincenzo Arelliti]

This is a new policy that's coming down the pipe from Crave (the owners of HF). They've had issues with another site that they own so they're applying the rules to all the sites they own.

This is still an evolving situation and there may be changes to the policy. For the moment it's better to play it on the safe side and not post anything that isn't NHL official. We'll keep you updated on any possible changes, but this is all the information that we have for the moment.

Unfortunately, there is no statute of limitations on the potential issue we are talking about so old posts could be a source of trouble.

Thank you!

 

[Borderbluesfan]

This is a new policy that's coming down the pipe from Crave (the owners of HF). They've had issues with another site that they own so they're applying the rules to all the sites they own.

This is still an evolving situation and there may be changes to the policy. For the moment it's better to play it on the safe side and not post anything that isn't NHL official. We'll keep you updated on any possible changes, but this is all the information that we have for the moment.

Unfortunately, there is no statute of limitations on the potential issue we are talking about so old posts could be a source of trouble.

Hey no matter what happens, we all still love you, lol. Not the Mod's fault!!! Mods here have always been good.

 

[bluesfan94]

Can we unlock old threads to make editing possible?

 

[EastonBlues22]

Can we unlock old threads to make editing possible?

Good point.

If there is a post you can't edit/delete yourself that you want removed, just PM me the link to the specific post(s) in question and I'll take care of it.

Probably be less trouble that way than trying to go back and unlock a few thousand threads.

 

[jura]

so no nhl gifs either!?

 

[Vincenzo Arelliti]

Are Fred Murtz videos acceptable?

 

[EastonBlues22]

Private messages are not under scrutiny, only public forum posts?

PMs will not be under scrutiny by HF, but there is no guarantee that they are immune from action from outside entities if the contents somehow came to their attention.

Note that soliciting streams on the open forums is now prohibited, even if the streams themselves are shared via PM. This is a significant change from past policy.

 

[elkranio]

You probably can write a parser that checks user messages for blacklisted links. It won't be easy of course. But I bet there are a lot of no longer active users that have posted a link or two in their lifetime.

Easier solution is to retroactively mask blacklisted domains with ****.

 

[Vincenzo Arelliti]

You probably can write a parser that checks user messages for blacklisted links. It won't be easy of course. But I bet there are a lot of no longer active users that have posted a link or two in their lifetime.

Easier solution is to retroactively mask blacklisted domains with ****.

I like the way you think.

 

[Borderbluesfan]

Are Fred Murtz videos acceptable?

They should be okay, he was posting from Youtube videos, haven't heard that they are going after youtube, yet. Most of this appears to be the NHL attempting to shut down feeds of streams of the games from sites that they can't control. Most of the youtube videos are from sites that someone paid for to view.

 

[EastonBlues22]

so no nhl gifs either!?

Unknown at this time.

The very conservative answer is that any unauthorized reproduction of content that the NHL holds rights to is a potential liability to your account.

The more practical answer is that those who might take action against you are mostly worried about things that impact revenue...such as giving others alternate access to broadcasts.

At this time, HF does not have an official policy against GIFs.

 

[KirkOut]

You probably can write a parser that checks user messages for blacklisted links. It won't be easy of course. But I bet there are a lot of no longer active users that have posted a link or two in their lifetime.

Easier solution is to retroactively mask blacklisted domains with ****.

wouldn't that have to be done from the admin level? I don't think us average joes could run scripts on our histories.

 

[elkranio]

wouldn't that have to be done from the admin level? I don't think us average joes could run scripts on our histories.

I meant owners should do this of course.

 

[EastonBlues22]

Are Fred Murtz videos acceptable?

Gray area.

It's likely not a high-priority item for those who might take action, but it's more likely to incur action than something like a GIF.

There's no official HF policy against highlight videos at this time.

 

[EastonBlues22]

I meant owners should do this of course.

wouldn't that have to be done from the admin level? I don't think us average joes could run scripts on our histories.

You probably can write a parser that checks user messages for blacklisted links. It won't be easy of course. But I bet there are a lot of no longer active users that have posted a link or two in their lifetime.

Easier solution is to retroactively mask blacklisted domains with ****.

We've spent a chunk of today adding common stream domains to the profanity filter for just this reason, but it's impossible to get them all.

My impression is that Crave has done what they need to do to cover their butts. Now it's up to us individual users to do the same.

 

[Vincenzo Arelliti]

Gray area.

It's likely not a high-priority item for those who might take action, but it's more likely to incur action than something like a GIF.

There's no official HF policy against highlight videos at this time.

Of course I do not blame the Mods - you guys are truly wonderful, and the Blues Forum is lucky to have the ones we do.

But, I am distraught.

My one and only, edited:

Does anyone have a GOOOOOOOOOCH for tonight's game?

 

[Borderbluesfan]

We've spent a chunk of today adding common stream domains to the profanity filter for just this reason, but it's impossible to get them all.

My impression is that Crave has done what they need to do to cover their butts. Now it's up to us individual users to do the same.

Good, continue to cover your site. We all love to come here. Will be interesting to see what happens if the NHL tries to go after individuals that post highlights. Lots of legal precedences covering users that post things in what is considered the common domain here in the U.S.