Litigation

Online video-sharing service not liable for users' copyright infringement

By Matt Hedberg

In an opinion issued last week, a federal district court in California dismissed a lawsuit against Veoh Networks, Inc., a self-described "Internet Television Network," which provides software and a website enabling the sharing of user-submitted video content over the Internet.  The lawsuit sought to impose liability on Veoh as a result of its website users' copyright-infringing postings on the video sharing website.

The court ruled that Veoh qualifies for the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. sec. 512, because it does not ?actively participate or supervise the uploading of files. . . .  Instead, video files are uploaded through an automated process which is initiated entirely at the volition of Veoh?s users.?  The court added that the evidence ?demonstrates that, far from encouraging copyright infringement, Veoh has a strong DMCA policy, takes active steps to limit incidents of infringement on its website and works diligently to keep unauthorized works off its Web site.?  The court found that Veoh need not shoulder the entire burden of policing third-party copyrights on its website and risk losing its business if it cannot.  Rather, the crucial issue was whether Veoh took appropriate steps to deal with copyright infringement that took place.  Because Veoh did act appropriately under the facts, it was shielded from damages that may have resulted from its users' copyright violations.

In a similar case filed in a New York federal court, Viacom is suing Google for $1 billion, alleging that Google-owned YouTube has been illegally hosting Viacom's proprietary content.  Whether other courts adopt the analysis in the Veoh decision remains to be seen; however, the result may bolster the arguments of video-hosting services seeking the benefits of the DMCA safe harbor provisions.

Full post as published by Northwest Business Litigation Blog on September 01, 2008 (boomark / email).