Viacom suit may reshape copyright law

[babylonsister]

http://www.mercurynews.com/warriors/ci_5425389

Viacom suit may reshape copyright law
Media giant says Google infringes `on a massive scale'
By Elise Ackerman
Mercury News




* The full copyright complaint from Viacom

The copyright lawsuit filed Tuesday by Viacom against Google and its YouTube subsidiary could end up rewriting one of the key laws of the Internet age: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Viacom, which owns MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, is alleging that Google and YouTube infringed copyrights "on a massive scale" by streaming more than 1.5 billion clips of shows like "SpongeBob SquarePants," "The Colbert Report" and "MTV Unplugged." It is seeking more than $1 billion in damages.

Google and YouTube have frequently cited the millennium copyright law - also known as the DMCA - in defense of repeated charges that they are illegally making money off of other people's creative work. But legal experts say it has yet to be determined whether key sections of the law apply to new media companies like Google and YouTube and scores of others.

"Any ruling in the YouTube case is certain to have implications for companies like Yahoo and eBay, as well as smaller companies like Facebook and imeem," said Fred von Lohmann, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "All of these companies rely on the exact same principles that YouTube does."

Executives at Google and YouTube have argued that they comply with the DMCA because they remove copyrighted material as soon as they are asked by the copyright owner. This includes both clips of TV shows like "The Daily Show" as well as videos created by users that contain copyrighted material, such as a home movie that has a Rolling Stones song as a soundtrack.

Viacom says this practice places the cost of enforcing copyrights on the "victims of infringement" who don't have the tools to effectively police the site. Last month, Viacom requested YouTube take down more than 100,000 videos. YouTube complied, but a number of users reposted the videos almost immediately.

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[MADem]

1. Olbermann's girlfriend's father is suing them, too

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6232073

Helicopter journalist Bob Tur, who captured the infamous Reginald Denny beating during the Los Angeles riots, says thousands of people have viewed his video on YouTube.
He's suing the site for millions.

Tur said, "The infringement activity is beyond imagination. We're seeing billions of copyrighted works infringed each month."

These lawsuits hit Google where it hurts, with many experts saying these cases against YouTube show just how much new media is changing old media and how consumers will get their entertainment online.

Anthony Falzone, Executive Director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford Law School, says, "It's a little bit of a culture clash. The old media versus the new media and they have very different ideas of what the rules are and should be, and I think that's why this has come to lagerheads."

And Google says YouTube's success and the law will lead them to legal victory.....In the meantime, millions of consumers will be caught in the middle of a multi-billion dollar court battle as YouTube becomes "sue"-Tube instead........

[demobabe]

2. This is going to be one to watch

At what point will websites disallow ANY third party content for fears it may be copyrighted?