Gadgets Blog » Federal Judge Rules for YouTube

YouTube, one of the Internet’s most visited websites, won a great victory today in a lawsuit that threatened the very nature of the website itself. One of the primary reasons the site was initially purchased by Internet giant Google was its freedom under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

Under this piece of federal law, the parent company of a website such as YouTube could not be prosecuted for hosting illegal materials (such as clips of trademarked television shows) so long as they were cooperative in removing video when notified of a violation. While Google has certainly been cooperative in this endeavor, this wasn’t enough for media company Viacom, which filed a lawsuit worth $1 billion in damages.

The ruling in this case was certainly difficult, and underscores the complexity of hosting digital media in the 21st century. No one is questioning that copyrighted content is hosted on YouTube, uploaded by thousands of users on a regular basis. Even though Google has remained highly cooperative with media companies in taking the offending video clips down, Viacom attempted to do something that was unprecedented in the realm of media-related legal proceedings: hold an Internet company accountable for the behavior of its users.

The judge’s ruling, which Viacom has already vowed to appeal, made a distinct separation between YouTube’s policy and the actions of its burgeoning user base.  Judge Louis Stanton, in a 30-page legal ruling, denied the lawsuit the ability to appear in court. In his statement, he cited several incidents where Google and YouTube had responded with great diligence to complaints previously filed by Viacom, including an incident in 2007 where the hosting site removed 100,000 videos overnight after complaints from Viacom.

Image Source:  flickr.com/photos/mauritsonline/4561481118

See also:

1. YouTube Turns Five Years Old
2. Google Begins Complete Absorption of YouTube
3. Google Announces Video Advertising on YouTube for 2008
4. Punishment for Music Piracy Deemed Excessive
5. One More Exciting Google News Story (For Good Measure)
6. Google’s Fight to Secure Digital Book Rights
7. Google TV: Sony Unveils TVs Powered by Google
8. Hulu TV from NBC and Fox Debuts March 12th
9. The Smarter Gadgets Guide to HTML5