What legal actions can be taken against a streaming video website?
<p>Say I own website a.com, and this website is a streaming content website (People goes to watch Illegal movies and Series).</p>

<p>But the website itself is not hosting any of that content, it is only allowing the users to watch those "videos" through links from 3rd party sites (Dailymotion, Rutube, videome, etc..).</p>

<p>Is there <strong>any legal action that can be undertook against the website itself</strong>, or <strong>should they be made against the 3rd party</strong>, which is where the actual copyrighted content is hosted ?</p>

<p>The website is in some kind, helping the distribution of copyrighted content, but is not the one hosting and distributing it to begin with. The website has nothing else than links in it's hard disk and database.</p>

<p>Thoughts on such a situation ?</p>

<p>Since you've commented this question is for Canada, such a website looks to be illegal by <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-42/page-8.html#h-103181" rel="nofollow noreferrer">s. 27(2.3) of the Copyright Act</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>It is an infringement of copyright for a person, by means of the Internet or another digital network, to provide a service primarily for the purpose of enabling acts of copyright infringement if an actual infringement of copyright occurs by means of the Internet or another digital network as a result of the use of that service.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Subsection 2.4 defines factors the courts will use to determine infringement in this case. Note this is a relatively new infringement provision, being introduced in the 2012 Copyright Modernization Act, and a <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/#search/type=decision&amp;origin1=%2Fen%2Fca%2Flaws%2Fstat%2Frsc-1985-c-c-42%2Flatest%2Frsc-1985-c-c-42.html&amp;section1=27-2.3&amp;linkedNoteup=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">CanLII search</a> currently reveals no substantial applicable case-law.</p>

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