YouTube survives as Viacom loses copyright infringement battle

by Stevie Smith - Jun 24 2010, 05:50

Rejoice, dear readers, the future of the Internet has been saved… following news that Hollywood entertainment behemoth Viacom has failed in its attempt to being YouTube to its knees through a $1 billion USD copyright infringement lawsuit.

More pointedly, U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton has this week thrown out Viacom’s longstanding case against YouTube, which accused the video-sharing service of turning a blind eye to piracy by failing to remove all Viacom-owned clips posted to the site by users.

In opposing Viacom’s complaint, Google-owned YouTube insisted that its responsibility regarding the removal of infringing content only stretched to clips specifically identified by the copyright holder.  

Writing in his 30-page decision, Judge Stanton commented that whenever “YouTube was given notices [by the copyright holder], it removed the material… It is thus protected from liability” under the ‘safe harbor’ provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

“The ‘safe harbor’ provision of the DMCA is a real success story and one of the reasons for the rapid growth of innovative online services,” said Leslie Harris, President of The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), a non-profit organisation working to keep the Internet open and free. “A Viacom win would have gutted a critical part of the DMCA’s copyright bargain.”

“Today’s decision isn’t just about YouTube,” added David Sohn, the CDT’s Senior Policy Counsel. “Without this decision, user-generated content would dry up and the Internet would cease to be a participatory medium.”

Although clearly disappointed by the decision to grant Google summary judgement, Viacom has released a statement saying it intends to appeal and will continue the battle by taking the case before a federal circuit court.

“Copyright protection is essential to the survival of creative industries,” commented Michael Fricklas, Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Viacom. “It is and should be illegal for companies to build their businesses with creative material they have stolen from others.”

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