Judge Tosses Viacom Suit vs. YouTube

23 Jun, 2010 By: Chris Tribbey

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A U.S. District Court judge delivered a blow to content owners June 23, dismissing Viacom’s three-year-old, $1 billion copyright infringement suit against Google-owned YouTube.

Saying safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) protected YouTube, Judge Louis Stanton granted Google’s motion to dismiss the case, pointing out that YouTube worked to remove infringing material “swiftly” once those video clips were discovered.

“The present case shows that the DCMA notification regime works efficiently: when Viacom over a period of months accumulated some 100,000 videos [on YouTube] and then sent one mass take-down notice on Feb. 2, 2007, by the next business day YouTube had removed virtually all of them,” the judge wrote in his ruling.

Viacom swore it would appeal the ruling.

“This case has always been about whether intentional theft of copyrighted works is permitted under existing law, and we always knew that the critical underlying issue would need to be addressed by courts at the appellate levels,” Michael Fricklas, Viacom EVP, general counsel and secretary, said in a statement. “Today's decision accelerates our opportunity to do so.”

He said before complying to copyright law, “YouTube and Google stole hundreds of thousands of video clips from artists and content creators, including Viacom, building a substantial business that was sold for billions of dollars.

“We believe that should not be allowed by law or common sense.”

YouTube VP and general counsel Kent Walker praised the decision in a statement.

“The decision follows established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are protected when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them manage their rights online,” he said. “This is an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the Web to communicate and share experiences with each other.

“We’re excited about this decision and look forward to renewing our focus on supporting the incredible variety of ideas and expression that billions of people post and watch on YouTube every day around the world.”

Sherwin Siy, deputy legal director of digital rights group Public Knowledge, said the decision was a victory for consumers and noted “that the current law is working quite well to protect content creators while taking into account the responsibilities of online service providers.”

“As we have continually said, the burden to point out allegations of infringement is with the content provider, and the burden of taking down material lies with the service provider,” he said. “Had Viacom won this case, that burden would have shifted dramatically. As the law now stands, prompt compliance with take-down notices shields an online service provider from liability.”

 

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