24 June 2010 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter
YouTube has been cleared of infringing copyright laws by a US judge - the culmination of a three-year, $1 billion lawsuit filed by entertainment company Viacom Inc. against the Google-owned video site.
The 30-page ruling by US District Judge Louis Stanton determined that YouTube's compliance with Viacom's demands that the site remove all copyrighted content meant that YouTube had satisfied 'safe harbor' provisions of the US's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Viacom filed more than 100,000 takedown orders to YouTube one month before taking the issue to court, which the site promptly responded to the next working day. Judge Stanton said there was no dispute that "when YouTube was given the (takedown) notices, it removed the material."
However, the Guardian reports that Viacom called the verdict "fundamentally flawed."
YouTube received the support of many notable internet companies throughout the long-winded suit, including Facebook, eBay and Yahoo! which supported its immunity to liability according to legislation passed in 1998, which clears service providers of responsibility when they comply with takedown orders after being notified of copyright violations.
Viacom's own part in the affair has been less exalted, particularly after it was revealed in March that the company had uploaded content to YouTube that it subsequently demanded be removed.
"Viacom's efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site," Judge Stanton observed.
"As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself."
The potentially ruinous lawsuit has now been thrown out of court, but it will come as no surprise if Viacom chooses to appeal the verdict.
Viacom loses $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube
YouTube has been cleared of infringing copyright laws by a US judge - the culmination of a three-year, $1 billion lawsuit filed by entertainment company Viacom Inc. against the Google-owned video site.The 30-page ruling by US District Judge Louis Stanton determined that YouTube's compliance with Viacom's demands that the site remove all copyrighted content meant that YouTube had satisfied 'safe harbor' provisions of the US's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Viacom filed more than 100,000 takedown orders to YouTube one month before taking the issue to court, which the site promptly responded to the next working day. Judge Stanton said there was no dispute that "when YouTube was given the (takedown) notices, it removed the material."
However, the Guardian reports that Viacom called the verdict "fundamentally flawed."
YouTube received the support of many notable internet companies throughout the long-winded suit, including Facebook, eBay and Yahoo! which supported its immunity to liability according to legislation passed in 1998, which clears service providers of responsibility when they comply with takedown orders after being notified of copyright violations.
Viacom's own part in the affair has been less exalted, particularly after it was revealed in March that the company had uploaded content to YouTube that it subsequently demanded be removed.
"Viacom's efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site," Judge Stanton observed.
"As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself."
The potentially ruinous lawsuit has now been thrown out of court, but it will come as no surprise if Viacom chooses to appeal the verdict.
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