Case Against Video-Sharing Site Dismissed

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A California copyright infringement case brought by an adult video maker against a video sharing web site, Veoh Networks, has been thrown out, based upon the 'safe harbor' provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ('DMCA'). In a 33-page decision (PDF), the Court concluded that Veoh was covered by the DMCA, and had carried out its duties to comply with takedown notices in a reasonable manner. The Court rejected the plaintiff's arguments showing possible ways that users could do an end-around, saying that the law requires 'reasonable' compliance, rather than perfection, and noted that the DMCA is 'designed to facilitate the robust development and world-wide expansion of electronic commerce, communications, research, development, and education in the digital age'."

Comments

YouTube & Viacom Responses

[eldavojohn]

I read this in Wired and found this quote from YouTube:

"It is great to see the Court confirm that the DMCA protects services like YouTube that follow the law and respect copyrights," YouTube Chief Counsel Zahavah Levine said in a statement. "YouTube has gone above and beyond the law to protect content owners while empowering people to communicate and share their experiences online."

And this quote from Viacom:

"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 â" conduct that is not protected by any law, including the DMCA."

Probably not far from what one would expect either to say but I'm afraid this isn't going to do much for YouTube.

Re:I like how they can skirt the laws

[garett_spencley]

I'm not an expert but I do have a few points that might help you out.

1) Prostitution laws vary greatly from one area to another. Even municipally. For example, my city issues escort licenses to effectively legalize prostitution and to "help protect the safety of sex workers" but street walking (the ones you see on tv where coked out whores are going up to cars) are still illegal. In some places it's ok to advertise but not to solicit directly. In other areas prostitution itself is legal but advertising it is not etc. So it's not as simple as "prostitution is illegal". It depends on the area and there are varying degrees of legality. The Wikipedia article on prostitution has lots more info.

2) Pornography is considered an artistic expression and the US constitution and Canadian charter among other bill of rights in other countries protect free speech. In the 70's there were supreme court cases in the US that helped set precedent protecting pornography under the federal-granted right to free speech.

Re:I like how they can skirt the laws

[ais523]

Allegedly a similar tactic used to be used by companies in the UK to sell goods on a Sunday (back when that was still illegal, which is way before I was born); they would sell perishable goods like fruit (which could be legally sold on a Sunday) for a lot more than its real price, and throw in whatever product they actually wanted to sell free.