This is a huge win for Youtube and new media and a major blow for old media companies. US supreme court sided with Youtube in the lawsuit filed by Viacom.
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge handed Google Inc. a major victory Wednesday by rebuffing media company Viacom Inc.’s attempt to collect more than $1 billion in damages for the alleged copyright abuses of Google’s popular YouTube service.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton in New York embraces Google’s interpretation of a 12-year-old law that shields Internet services from claims of copyright infringement as long as they promptly remove illegal content when notified of a violation.
That so-called “safe harbor” helped persuade Google to buy YouTube for $1.76 billion in 2006, even though some of the Internet search leader’s own executives had earlier branded the video-sharing service as “a ‘rogue enabler’ of content theft,” according to documents unearthed in the copyright infringement case.
Stanton “blessed the current state of play on the Internet,” said Eric Goldman, a Santa Clara University associate professor who specializes in high-tech law. The affirmation was cheered by Internet service providers and free-speech groups who believe the Digital Millennium Copyright Act helps give more people an outlet to express themselves.
“Without this decision, user-generated content would dry up and the Internet would cease to be a participatory medium,” said David Sohn, a lawyer for the Center for Democracy & Technology.”
Viacom, the owner of popular cable channels such as MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, called Stanton’s decision “fundamentally flawed” and vowed to appeal. That virtually ensures a legal brawl that already has dragged on for more than three years will spill into 2011 and perhaps beyond.
“Copyright protection is essential to the survival of creative industries,” said Michael Fricklas, Viacom’s general counsel. “It is and should be illegal for companies to build their businesses with creative material they have stolen from others.”
The bitter battle revolves around Viacom’s allegations that YouTube built itself into the Internet’s most watched video site by milking unlicensed use of copyright-protected clips stolen from professionally produced show such as Viacom’s “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show.”
This veridict will sure have major ramifications on the media industry which is getting disrupted by the web and mobile technologies. This will force them to look towards innovation rather than litigation to survive.