Viacom Sues YouTube Over Copyright Violations
Several articles report the lawsuit Viacom, which owns many cable television stations, brought against YouTube, an online site where people can post and watch videos—many of which are posted by contributors who want to freely share their work. This case could have ramifacations for many other Web sites where users can post a variety of content. Earlier, Viacom sent YouTube a list of about 100,000 copyright violations, which YouTube removed from its site. Viacom is suing because many of the clips reappeared and it believes YouTube is not doing enough to stop users from posting copyrighted content.
From The Boston Globe:
"While the case is focused on the field of online video, it could have ramifications for old-line media seeking to protect their ownership of content and for any site that pulls content from other sources."
Many other television networks and content owners whose work shows up on YouTube are going to watch closely. Lots of content owners are not happy about their work materializing on YouTube and have been pondering how to stop that sort of involuntary distribution. Among the complications of this case are how liable YouTube and its owner, Google, might be for content posted by its users and what kinds of content and what kinds of use violate copyright law.
