In an encouraging decision for YouTube, a US federal district court has ruled that online video site Veoh is not responsible for copyright violations committed by its users.
Universal Music Group accused Veoh of copyright violations in a lawsuit filed two years ago, but the court decided the site is protected by the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Since 2007, Google, which owns YouTube, has been in a similar legal wrangle with media conglomerate Viacom, which holds interests in DreamWorks, Paramount and MTV. Viacom is suing Google for US$1 billion worth of damages over YouTube copyright violation. But analysts say that while the Veoh decision isn’t binding on the Google case, it sets a precedent that the YouTube decision will probably follow.
“Veoh’s policies are very similar to YouTube’s,” Electronic Frontier Foundation senior attorney Fred von Lohmann told Cnet.com. “The judge gave Veoh a clean bill of health. I think the court in New York [where the Viacom-YouTube case is being heard] is going to take this ruling very seriously. The facts are very, very close.”
Viacom’s case against Google is expected to go to trial in 2010.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COMMENTS
SmartCompany is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while it is being reviewed, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The SmartCompany comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The SmartCompany comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.