San Francisco - Viacom, the owner of MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, is trying to revive a federal lawsuit seeking more than $1 billion in damages from YouTube for showing tens of thousands of pirated video clips from its shows.
The challenge filed recently in a federal appeals court in New York had been expected since a June ruling rebuffed Viacom’s copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube and its owner, Google Inc.
Viacom’s renewed effort is the latest twist in a closely watched legal battle that has already dragged on for nearly four years. Oral argument on the appeal probably won’t happen until at least next summer.
The case revolves around the premise that YouTube became the world’s leading online video channel after its 2005 inception by turning a blind eye to the rampant piracy on its site. Viacom argued that YouTube’s founders realised the copyright-protected clips from shows such as Viacom’s The Daily Show attracted far more viewers than the amateur video of cute kittens and angst-ridden teenagers.
Piracy was so prevalent at YouTube in its early years that Google branded the video-sharing site as “a rogue enabler of content theft” before it bought the service in 2006, according to internal documents unearthed in the lawsuit.
YouTube is confident the lower-court ruling that cleared the service will be upheld.
Viacom’s appeal will hinge on its argument that YouTube doesn’t qualify for the protections allowed under a 12-year-old law that insulates internet services from copyright claims as long as they promptly remove illegal content after being notified of a violation.
US District Judge Louis Stanton concluded that YouTube had complied with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, absolving it of legal liability for the theft of its users. He dismissed Viacom’s lawsuit.
Viacom contends YouTube does not fall under the law’s “safe harbour” provision because its founders – Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim – welcomed the piracy to get rich quick by selling the site. They cashed in when Google bought YouTube for $1.76 billion four years ago. – Sapa-AP