New Jersey Sues YouTube Over Crash Video

eldavojohn writes "The New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) has sued YouTube and a number of other video sites for showing footage of a car crash that happened on the turnpike and was, therefore, property of the turnpike. The NJTA requested the footage be removed under the DMCA — which YouTube complied with — unfortunately, the video was copied to several other sites. The NJTA still seems to be targeting YouTube since YouTube 'did not try to prevent the very same video from being uploaded again by users immediately after it was purportedly removed.' We'll have to watch this closely and see if, even after you take down material violating the DMCA, you are at fault to any extent for people who already copied said material."

Comments

Re:Public roads

[codepunk]

I fully agree with you, it was taken with a camera owned and manned by a govt authority using public
dollars...As far as I am concerned it is public domain.

To all the lawyers who /.

[HouseArrest420]

To all who have said this is invalid: If you have a sex video of your neighbor, that your neighbor gave you; does the neighbor have any say to what you do with it? No, once it leaves their hands they lose all legal claim. Could they sue if you put it on the internet? Yeah...but only for deformation of character, and even then unless your lawyers know nothing at all, their chance of wining is small. To thos who will say that's not a good example, try this one: You're a moron if you think your local supermarket wouldn't sue if you stole their security video that showed the manager jackin his meat in some jars of mayonnaise (sp?) This "tape" belongs to NJTA regardless of what you think, purely by possession alone. So can they sue for the use of it? Hell yeah. Can they win? Hell yeah. Is it right? Probably not, but consider: You snuck that sex video of your neighbor, replaced the original and then spread your copy over the internet. Can your neighbor sue you? Hell yeah...and they'd win with no trouble at all. NJTA is just covering it's ass in case the family sue's. If you don't like it...petition. But eventually your going to have to cry me a river, build a bridge and get over it. The ONLY way NJTA is going to lose this is if they fight for the wrong reason. Which is exactly why all the sites involved have "tried" to comply already. -- The easiest way to win an arguement is to make the other involved party think they're wrong.