Intellectual Property Law

The IP Blawg is following a recent copyright complaint filed in the Northern District of California that may help clarify the contours of on-line file sharing liability after the Supreme Court?s decision in MGM v. Grokster.  Recall that last June the Supreme Court ruled in Grokster that distributors of peer-to-peer file-swapping software could be held liable for the actions of those using the software to exchange copyrighted materials, if the technology was mostly used to facilitate infringement.   

Now, a news reporter is alleging that YouTube Inc., the popular on-line video file sharing site, infringed its copyrighted video of truck driver Reginald Denny being beaten in Los Angeles in 1992 following the Rodney King verdict by hosting user content containing that footage.  The case promises to further probe the parameters of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, since YouTube limits video clip lengths to 10 minutes and does not appear to enable sharing of, for example, feature length movies or television shows.  According to IPLaw 360, plaintiff LA News Service did not use the DMCA?s ?notice and takedown? procedure before filing the lawsuit, and instead argues that YouTube is not an Internet Service Provider entitled to such a safe harbor under the DMCA. 

User-driven content is a booming area of online entertainment, and YouTube claims to be one of the fastest-growing web sites on the Internet.  Stay tuned to the IP Blawg for updates on the DMCA and file sharing.