Copyright Law

Amicus brief filed by group of organizations on behalf of YouTube in Viacom v YouTube

By Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman

In Viacom v. YouTube, a number of organizations have filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of YouTube, in support of its defense based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The filing organizations are the

American Library Association
Association of College and Research Libraries
Center for Democracy and Technology
Computer and Communications Industry Association
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Home Recording Rights Coalition
Internet Archive
Netcoalition and
Public Knowledge

The brief starts out:

As is now abundantly evident, the Internet has grown into an unprecedented, global, accessible, vibrant platform for free speech and creative expression. Never before have so many citizens been able to reach an audience across so many mediums, at such low cost. All of this activity depends in turn upon a thriving marketplace of service providers?including YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, and Flickr, to name a few?providing inexpensive (or free) public fora for speech and innovation. Changes to the legal climate for these service providers can have profound consequences for the future of free expression online. Thus, proper interpretation of copyright laws as applied to online service providers is a matter of crucial public interest.

Commentary & discussion:

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Full post as published by Recording Industry vs The People on April 13, 2010 (boomark / email).