Today, a U.S. District Court in New York granted summary judgment in favor of Google, ending (for now) Viacom's $1 billion copyright infringement action based on YouTube videos. Judge Louis Stanton ruled that Google was entitled to the "safe harbor" protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The judge stated that "In this case, it is uncontroverted that when YouTube was given the [DMCA takedown] notices, it removed the material." This is good new for you contributory infringers out there Viacom has promised an appeal. If you want to read the 30 page opinion, you can download a pdf copy of Judge Stanton's order granting summary judgment to Google.
I think that this is another step towards the destruction of intellectual property and copyright as we know it.
As Business Attorney stated, this will be appealed, and I'm not sure that even if they don't prevail, it would be applicable to the vast majority of smaller sites that don't have millions of dollars to fight it, nor the resources to immediately remove 10,000 videos upon a DMCA notice. Even the RapidShare case doesn't apply to most sites. As I understand it, the main reason RapidShare won on appeal was that they don't upload content or directly link - the url is private, and it's the person who uploads or posts the link that would be liable. Another point of view: http://precursorblog.com/content/why-viacom-likely-wins-viacom-google-copyright-appeal
Google was entitled to the "safe harbor" protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The judge stated that "In this case, it is uncontroverted that when YouTube was given the [DMCA takedown] notices, it removed the material. Period !!!! Viacom can not make their own Laws !!! simple as that !!
Was google aware of mass copyright infringement? Did they actively encourage infringement for monetary gain? That is the question. Both sides agreed to an expedited summary judgment process in the lower court, because they both knew that regardless of the lower courts ruling, it was ultimately going to be decided by a higher court. The lower court decision wasn't going to matter regardless of who won round one.
It should not be an issue for Google, since millions of people post copyrighted materials they should just discourage posting of copyrighted materials thats all. Its really impossible to totally control copyright infringements.