The issue was Maria thought she posted it in a secure site, but she didn't. I did nothing wrong, but boy, they had a great time with it on The Summitt.
That's about it. The link to the video was in a copyrighted article, but the video wasn't password or otherwise protected. So anyone anywhere who knew the link, which DD had posted here, could watch the video. As a result of this incident, Maria found a more secure host for the videos intended only for her premium subscribers.
For our part, we exercise care about copyrighted materials. Links to such materials posted on the internet are OK, as are brief quotations with acknowledgement. Wholesale reproduction of large parts, or all, of a copyrighted piece are not OK. We post reminders of these rules from time to time.
In this case, there was a specific precedent raising the issue. DD had posted a large excerpt from an article on the Lady Vols. I inquired where it came from, and he said from the Tennessee premium site. I took the article down. Writers are entitled to be paid for premium content, and they can't allow it to be disseminated for free by their subscribers to non-subscribers.
When this linked video episode came along, however, we had no reason to take any particular note of it. It was just a link to YouTube. For her part, Maria viewed it as a repeat offense by DD and reacted strongly both on her board and by filing an FBI complaint. She withdrew the complaint shortly thereafter, which is why, DD, you never heard anything.
We had some discussions with her at the time as to how we could communicate better if a problem arose on one of the boards.
For the record, and I hate to put even a slight damper on the Boneyard hilarity in this matter, the involvement of the FBI with intellectual property theft is not preposterous, although such involvement in a case like this would be in that realm.
Copyright infringements are generally dealt with in civil lawsuits. Here's a
discussion by the Copyright Office, which is probably more than most people want to know. The relevant point in that discussion is that there are two units of the FBI that do investigate intellectual property crimes.
While one can call the local FBI office and be routed, there is also an
Internet Crime Complaint Center which allows one to
file a complaint online. I believe this is what Maria did.
Complaints filed in this manner are mainly aimed at triggering investigations of consumer fraud. A criminal infringement matter involving the FBI would likely involve product patent or trademark infringement, especially international, to the potential detriment of consumers.
As far as videos, the
FBI has been involved with large-scale movie piracy.
One supposes a complaint involving video of a Lady Vols press conference, allegedly "pirated" by pointing to its location on the public YouTube, would be something less than a top priority for the Bureau. So for those inclined to giggle at the idea of FBI involvement in this case, to that extent they can feel free.