Legal Question in Technology Law in Ohio

Re: Is posting a copyrighted thing online, while stating the source, illegal?

If a web site operator places something copyrighted on his site, and someone views it, it might be copyright infringement, but it would be the site operator, and not the viewer, who had the problem.

If you download a copyrighted work from a website, that can be a problem for you. The motion picture industry has been very agressive about protecting its copyrights. You should never download something you know is copyrighted, and if you do, you should never share that with anyone else. "Bandwidth monitoring" has led to several civil cases being filed against people who've downloaded significant amounts of music from sites like Kazaa, etc.

You can record a television program for your own use and entertainment without violating the copyright, but you can't use that program for public viewing. For example, you couldn't tape an episode of "The Closer" on television and then play it at your bar, or charge people to come to your house and see it.

Generally, if a site does not respect copyrights and protect the intellectual property of others, it is a good idea to avoid the website.