Are Some YouTube ‘How To’ Videos Criminal?
I’m not going to point to any of the videos that have me wondering about the law as it relates to instructional videos. I just finished watching a video that was ostensibly showing innocent people how to unlock their car when they have locked themselves out. This supposed skill has a very obvious illegal purpose.
The various instructional videos related to unlocking iPhones are not illegal as far as I know and the procedure that they advocate is not illegal. It breaks the terms of a user agreement.
A comedy monologue discussing the fact that it is illegal to talk about how to kill a certain World leader has been uploaded multiple times. The copyright infringement is illegal. I have to wonder if the titles that some of the thieves used makes their action a felony.
I can tell you how to get an evening’s worth of entertainment. Just put “how to” into the search bar on YouTube. There is a video about how to wash a cat. I have not viewed it. The fact that it exists was funny enough.
I guess that people can legally promote and demonstrate anything that has a plausible legal purpose. Spoof cards are a good example of this. A service that allows you to call someone and have a false number displayed on their caller ID has some obvious illegal applications. It could assist someone who wants to perpetrate fraud or harassment. The services are legal in the US at this time and most providers point to legitimate purposes. For instance, a doctor can use such a service to phone a patient from his home and have the caller ID display his office number.
