Veoh wins copyright infringement lawsuit

Updated at 12:11 p.m. PDT with comment from a Viacom spokesman.

Video-sharing site Veoh defeated a copyright infringement lawsuit Wednesday in federal court, potentially giving Google's YouTube a tool in its defense against a $1 billion lawsuit filed by Viacom, according to a report posted on PaidContent.org.

Veoh was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit in 2006 by the Io Group, an adult entertainment company, but it defended its actions, citing provisions within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That provision calls for a party to remove copyrighted material from its Web site, when notified by the copyright holder.

A judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, Calif., found that Veoh was not liable for hosting copyrighted videos that its users uploaded to its site because the company used an automated process to post videos and did not play an active role in getting the material onto its site. The court also found that Veoh removed the material when informed by the copyright holder, putting it in compliance with a "safe harbor" provision of the DMCA law, according to the report.

The ruling may bolster Google's efforts to defend its YouTube video-sharing site against Viacom's $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit. In a post in The Wall Street Journal, Google issued this statement:

It is great to see the court confirm that the DMCA protects services like YouTube that follow the law and respect copyrights...YouTube has gone above and beyond the law to protect content owners while empowering people to communicate and share their experiences online.

The Google-Viacom case is still pending.

A Viacom spokesman, however, said the ruling does nothing to change the company's stance on the legality of YouTube's operations.

Even if the Veoh decision were to be considered by other courts, that case does nothing to change the fact that YouTube is a business built on infringement that has failed to take reasonable measures to respect the rights of creators and content owners. Google and YouTube have engaged in massive copyright infringement--conduct that is not protected by any law, including the DMCA.

[kidtechguru]

Veoh should deserved to be fined...

www.KidTechGuru.blogspot.com

[Renegade Knight]

The law says otherwise. Good. the DMCA takedown provision is open for abuse, and is activly abused to block legitimate fair use, and competition. The least it can do is have the safe harbour provision work as intended.

[badasscat]

Except that the law says they shouldn't. And I hope that all of you here who have been brainwashed by the RIAA and MPAA come to realize this at some point. Greedy corporations want all the money they can get; that doesn't mean the law is always on their side. We now have conclusive proof of that in the form of a legal ruling in Veoh's case, and I expect we'll see the same result with Google.

These frivolous lawsuits need to stop, and the RIAA and MPAA need to start respecting the laws that they themselves helped draft.

[thelemurking]

I can't help but to wonder if you trolled to drive up hits to your blog which I refuse to click.

[skeptic47]

You neglected to mention the judge said "the decision rendered here is confined to the particular combination of facts in this case and is not intended to push the bounds of the safe harbor so wide that less scrupulous service providers may claim its protection." Many copyright owners license to Veoh; not many do the same to YouTube. We're talking apples and oranges here.

[mattflaschen]

"Many copyright owners license to Veoh; not many do the same to YouTube. We're talking apples and oranges here." Thing is, DMCA Safe Harbor has nothing to do with whether the host pays for licenses. As long as they comply with the DMCA procedures (which both Veoh and YouTube do), they're safe. The facts are the same where it counts.

[mpitogo]

Conversely, Viacom has engaged in massive corporate greed taking advantage of content creators and milking the consumer for every penny.

[Lerianis]

I was wondering when someone would bring that up, which I happen to agree with that statement. Basically Veoh is the same as Youtube, when it comes down to it.... if they are not in violation of the DMCA, then Google isn't either.