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Stakes Raised in YouTube Legal Battles
Two major US media companies have entered the legal fray against YouTube and its parent company, Google Inc. NBC Universal and Viacom Inc. have both filed amicus briefs in support of a suit against YouTube filed last year for alleged copyright infringement.
In a separate story, The Football Association Premier League Ltd., owner of the English Premier League franchise, has filed its own suit against YouTube and Google in the District Court of Manhattan asking for unspecified damages for allegedly “widespread” copyright infringements; it is also seeking class action status in this suit.
As owners of much of the copyrighted content being posted and distributed on the popular YouTube website, media companies have become increasingly concerned over YouTube’s passive stance in removing such content, which is almost always posted without consent of the copyright holders. Media companies argue that YouTube could and should take a more active approach by implementing procedures and technologies that would identify and remove copyrighted content. At present, YouTube only removes copyrighted content upon request by copyright holders.
Google, however, maintains that the procedures YouTube has in place is already in compliance with the so-called “safe-harbour” provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA); the DMCA provisions shield one from liability for copyright claims if certain conditions are met.
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