YouTube's no friend to copyright violators

People posting copyright material on YouTube shouldn't be surprised if the company makes no effort to protect them in a copyright battle.

The video-sharing site may hand over information on those who post video clips of movies and TV shows if they're accused of copyright infringement, something perhaps not well known by those who do so.

Robert Tur, a Los Angeles-based journalist who recorded scenes of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, filed suit against YouTube in July after seeing numerous clips of his video on the site. In a letter to Tur, YouTube attorneys said he should instead go after the person who posted the video, according to Tur's attorney, Francis Pizzulli.

"Mr. Tur was advised that...he could file a lawsuit against the YouTube user," Pizzulli said. "Mr. Tur was informed that it was YouTube policy to provide copyright owners with user identification information (after receiving a valid subpoena)."

After receiving such a subpoena in another case last summer, YouTube turned over information belonging to Chris Moukarbel, who was being sued by Paramount Pictures for making a movie based on a script owned by the studio, according to a Friday story in MarketWatch.

A YouTube representative did not respond to an interview request from CNET News.com.

That YouTube will not cover up for accused lawbreakers shouldn't come as a surprise. The company has consistently said that it will obey the law and that it doesn't want copyright material on its site. That message is spelled out in YouTube's user agreement, as well as in a computer prompt that appears before a person uploads a clip.

The company also says it removes clips once notified of a copyright violation.

But YouTube owes much of its early fame to the unauthorized posting of movie and TV show clips.

YouTube first began attracting attention after clips from NBC TV's "Saturday Night Live," showed up on its site. Much was written about the show's appearance on YouTube and the subsequent demand by NBC that the clips be removed. Since then, slices of sporting events, news shows, feature films, soap operas and music videos have appeared on YouTube.

And the payoff came earlier this month. It was YouTube's 16 million monthly visitors that helped convince Google to pay $1.65 billion for the video-sharing site.

Since the sale, entertainment companies have begun making noise about their unwillingness to stand still while YouTube and others attract crowds with their properties. A group of Japanese media companies demanded Friday that YouTube remove more than 29,000 videos, and the company complied.

Universal Music Group said on Tuesday that it had filed lawsuits against video-sharing sites Grouper and Bolt.com for the alleged copyright violations on their sites. It remains unclear why Universal did not name YouTube in its suit.

YouTube has said it is working on new methods to help thwart copyright violations. The company has also said that it is not responsible for copyright violations; the users are.

[someexistence]

smart on youtube's part

This makes a lot of sense for youtube. It redirects the pressure coming from copyright holders from youtube to individual users. It also puts pressure on the copyright holders...often the big studio companies don't want to be seen suing a bunch of individuals - makes them look like the bad guy. Should be interesting to see how many users are actually sued.

[imacpwr]

YouTube is 95% copyright material..

If YouTube removes the copyright violators the only thing left will
be hundreds of clips of people acting like monkeys in front of thier
webcams..

[imacpwr]

Napster déjà vu

quote:
"YouTube has said it is working on new methods to help thwart
copyright violations. The company has also said that it is not
responsible for copyright violations; the users are."

Haven't we heard that one before..???

"Napster has said it is working on new methods to help thwart
copyright violations. The company has also said that it is not
responsible for copyright violations; the users are."

[trueview]

Constructing sites like YouTube should be illegal

Well, the title says it all. I think the old thinking, "it's the users fault", after building a site which collects information which infringes copyright interests.... in such case the CEO's should go to prison for publicly performing such content unless they turn the site off, or reduce the scope of the site so they vet each piece before publishing. In other words, if you build a business/site you are doing so under your names (the CEO/Executives)................. It doesn?t matter how big or iconoclastic you are..... or how diluted you place yourself (CEO) between you, your employees and the content?.. IT doesn?t matter. I think we'll see a "sea change" in coming times. This is all wrong and there is no excuse or business logic for this. YouTube should be shut down immediately or fix it immediately.

[trueview]

Constructing sites like YouTube should be illegal

Well, the title says it all. I think the old thinking, "it's the users fault", after building a site which collects information which infringes copyright interests.... in such case the CEO's should go to prison for publicly performing such content unless they turn the site off, or reduce the scope of the site so they vet each piece before publishing. In other words, if you build a business/site you are doing so under your names (the CEO/Executives)................. It doesn?t matter how big or iconoclastic you are..... or how diluted you place yourself (CEO) between you, your employees and the content..... IT doesn?t matter. I think we'll see a "sea change" in coming times. This is all wrong and there is no excuse or business logic for this. YouTube should be shut down immediately or fix it immediately, and Google Executives must be held accountable. (Like buying a racketeering black-market business -- now the ball is in their court). I think people who achieve lots of success quickly feel empowered to do what they want, and feel like nobody can touch them. There is no question new legislation will be enacted to address this..................

[trueview]

Constructing sites like YouTube should be illegal (IMO) - full version

Well, the title says it all. I think the old thinking, "it's the users fault", after building a site which collects information which infringes copyright interests.... in such case the CEO's should go to prison for publicly performing such content unless they turn the site off, or reduce the scope of the site so they vet each piece before publishing. In other words, if you build a business/site you are doing so under your names (the CEO/Executives)................. It doesn?t matter how big or iconoclastic you are..... or how diluted you place yourself (CEO) between you, your employees and the content..... IT doesn?t matter. I think we'll see a "sea change" in coming times. This is all wrong and there is no excuse or business logic for this. YouTube should be shut down immediately or fix it immediately, and Google Executives must be held accountable. (Like buying a racketeering black-market business -- now the ball is in their court). I think people who achieve lots of success quickly feel empowered to do what they want, and feel like nobody can touch them. There is no question new legislation will be enacted to address this..................

[scottbarker]

itunes for YouTube

There needs to be a iTunes for YouTube. THe same issu is
occurring, because of the availability of a service and the neglect of
a company people are easily able to break copyright laws without
punishment. The problem is people will continue to break those
laws until a regular YouTube user gets in big trouble to uploading a
video of themselves sing "love Shack". I think that there should be
a place on the web where you can pay a small fee like 99 cents to
upload music or video that is not original for viewing pleasures of
the masses where NBC and user can be happy.

[scottbarker]

itunes for YouTube

There needs to be a iTunes for YouTube. The same issue is
occurring, because of the availability of a service and the neglect
of
a company. People are easily able to break copyright laws
without
punishment. The problem is people will continue to break those
laws until a regular YouTube user gets in big trouble for
uploading a
video of themselves sing "love Shack". I think that there should
be a place on the web where you can pay a small fee like 99
cents to upload music or video that is not original for viewing
pleasures of the masses, where NBC and user alike can be
happy.

[X-C3PO]

YouTube so popular are everyone can put "any" video clip to share

If those "fun" illegal video clips are remove then what's remain in YouTube?
Most "personal made" video are not fun....really..

[umbrae]

Fair Use

There is some bad stuff on YouTube, but I think most of the stuff on YouTube would survive. Most clips are partial and would fall under fair use.

[t3st3r`]

Are you dudes are stupid liers or guys from media mafia?

YouTube has nothing close to 95% of copyrighted material.Let's stop this copyright madness ignited by media mafia and its racketeers.

[SN37]

I think there is more than a thousands of illegal movies on YouTube?. I think some of all YouTube? members or some of you think these movies are really great, but for me, it is illegal.

Some are full-length, cut into parts, and some of them are movie clips.

I think all of them have DVD-ripped their movies and posted them in.

Some YouTube? members are recording TV shows also.

So everyone, PLEASE, don't upload movies from a DVD or record TV shows.