Q. Dear Rabbi,
I am a writer, and someone pointed me to a website where people can put up videos of themselves teaching any subject they feel they know something about.
People pay a monthly or yearly fee to have access to the videos.
Every month they take 30 to 50 per cent of the revenue they get from student membership, and pay the teachers--the people who made the videos-- according to what percentage their video was watched from the total of all the watched videos that month. For example if a person's video was watched 5% of the total time of all the watched videos, that person would get 5% of that months total revenue--from the 30 to 50 per cent that they put aside to pay the teachers. I hope I'm explaining this clearly
Some questions:
One is regarding Shabbos. People can go online anytime to watch the video and I would get paid for every minute they watch (according to the formula described above) People can watch it on Shabbos as well. Is this a problem?
Secondly, they want the teachers to give exercises for the students to do, and since I'm a writer, I would give writing exercises. Perhaps a Jewish person would watch my video on Shabbos and do my exercises on Shabbos. Is this a shaila?
I can also post videos that people can watch for free. This wouldn't give me income but would help promote my writing business.
In summary the questions are Can I post videos on this website for pay? Can I post videos on this website free of charge?
Thank you in advance for your response
A. On question 1347, regarding e-commerce & electronic transactions on Yom Tov we wrote: Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that operations, sales and purchases, that are done automatically (on-line) by a preset program, where no human intervention is needed, are not different than any Shabbos timer that does melochos on Shabbos by itself, after being programmed before Shabbos.
Similarly in your case, since the setting of the teaching videos was done not specifically to be played on Shabbos, it is similar to a vending machine that operates constantly. Since the majority of the people using that website are Gentiles, and the pay received is not only for the Shabbos usage of the video, but for the whole month, (behavlaa), the Rov’s opinion is that it is permitted.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a.
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