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Viacom Says "YouTube Depends On Us"

Posted by kdawson on from the one-sided dept.

Anonycat writes "Michael Fricklas, a lawyer for Viacom, has an opinion piece in the Washington Post laying out Viacom's side in their $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube. Fricklas asserts that the DMCA's 'safe harbor' provisions don't apply because YouTube is knowledgeable to infringement and furthermore derives financial benefit from it. He also argues that putting the onus of spotting infringement onto the content providers represents an undue burden on them. Fricklas caps the argument by stating, 'Google and YouTube wouldn't be here if not for investment in software and technologies spurred by patent and copyright laws.'"

6 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. If Viacom would ... by Organic+Brain+Damage · · Score: 5, Insightful

    lobby Congress to alter copyright law in the USA to change the duration to something more reasonable, like 50, 60, hell, even 70 years from the date of original publication, I'd be more sympathetic to their case. With the current: "nothing from the date of the creation of the Mouse will ever enter the public domain situation", I've got zero sympathy for copyright holders.

    1. Re:If Viacom would ... by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I remember back in college when we had to study copyright issues in our graduate level history classes ("fair use" for academics and all that). We were taught the whole "70 years and it's in the public domain" thing. The law has been changed so many times since, and thinned out so much, that no one even bothers TRYING to teach copyright issues anymore. Essentially, the new paradigm is "If it's not in public domain already, it probably never will be." And FORGET trying to teach fair use in the post-DMCA era.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  2. I don't watch any "big producer" content on YT by Webcommando · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Top favorites: "Chad Vader", "God Inc.", DoogTunes, "Ask a Ninja".

    Strangely, it appears YouTube will continue to be supported by me because of the non-infringing material. Actually, in my opinion, all the Viacom, et. al. material makes it difficult to find the real gems.

    --
    I love the sound of distortion in the morning -- webcommando
  3. Undue Burden? by Luscious868 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the summary:

    He also argues that putting the onus of spotting infringement onto the content providers represents an undue burden on them.

    Oh please. You want an easy solution. Setup a website where users can create an account, provide contact information and then search the web and/or P2P networks to report instances of copyright violation. When a particular instance has been reported a certain number of times have a real person check the link to determine if a violation has occurred and then take appropriate action. Reward the volunteers who are reporting the violation with points for those instances where a verified violation has occurred and after a certain number of points are accrued reward users with a free DVD or CD from the catalog.

    The amount of money that the RIAA and MPAA would save if they implemented this kind of system would more than offset the free DVD's or CD's they would be giving away if their own figures on losses due to piracy are real.

    With the Internet, you've got a whole army of users who can be the watchdogs for you. All you've got to do is give them an incentive and have a verification system in place to weed out fake entries.

  4. Stephen Colbert: Star Defense witness. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's going to suck for viacom when youTube calls Stephen Colbert to the stand. He's highlighted original content from youTube, He had representatives of a small comnercial venture (the band OK go) on to talk about how they used youTube to publish an Ad (their music videos), and he has multiple times asked people to make fair use parody content going so far as to make green screen segments to make it easier.

  5. Re:There's the real danger of Grokster by StormReaver · · Score: 5, Informative

    IANAL, yada, yada...

    "Grokster, if you recall, was explicit about saying that the company was guilty of contributory infringement only because they *encouraged unauthorized copying. The argument that "they benefited" from this copying was insufficient to that holding. Now here's the argument again..."

    I think you misinterpreted the decision. The ruling said that the plaintiffs didn't need to show that the defendants benefited from unauthorized copying by 3rd parties because the defendant's software's primary purpose was to encourage that unauthorized copying. The latter was sufficient to show liability for 3rd-party copyright infringement.

    That being said, it's quite a stretch to apply that reasoning to YouTube. In fact, that ruling works in YouTube's favor as YouTube is marketed for the purpose of sharing user-created content. That it is being used (even substantially) for 3rd party copyright infringement is not solely the issue to determine if YouTube is liable for its user's actions. In the Sony case, the Justices noted that VCRs were largely used for 3rd party copyright infringement, but were still protected because they had substantial non-infringing uses. Since YouTube is complying with the DMCA by providing a means for copyright holders to mark their content for removal (and the DMCA requires copyright holders to shoulder the responsibility for finding and marking infringing materials), and assuming that YouTube removes the infringing content upon notification, then I think YouTube will readily prevail.

    In the Grokster decision, Justice Breyer noted that the Court cannot possibly decide whether a technology has future non-infringing uses when even professionals in the field cannot agree. As such, it strongly implies that if a reasonable argument can be made for probable substantial non-infringing uses, then it's better to err on the side of the new technology than to decide against it and stifle future commerce.

    Grokster is little more than a footnote regarding YouTube, and seems to have very little applicability to it.