The Story
A case brought by Universal Music Group against the video sharing site Veoh just ended in Veoh’s favor. The judge in the case passed summary judgment against UMG, saying that Veoh’s claim of safe harbor was valid. Under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, American entities can claim safe harbor if they’re in compliance with the law despite their users. The question was whether or not one could claim safe harbor when in the position of a video sharing site. The RIAA, of which UMG is a member, said no, but the legal system says yes.
Landmark
This case is super important because it grants legal status to sites like YouTube, so long as they’re in compliance with the law. Veoh was able to claim safe harbor because, even though its users upload illegal content, it did what it could to take down that material. In a way, this is very similar to an earlier case this year which said that sites are not liable for users’ abusing one another.
A New Tide
It looks like the American legal system’s position on digital copyright might be changing for the better. The evidence of this is that the judge in the trial allowed for summary judgment against Universal. That means that the judge thought Veoh was so in the right that it did not allow a full trial to transpire, but went right to declaring Veoh the victor. And rightfully so. UMG basically wanted to make video sharing sites illegal, and good thing for us the judge was having none of it. When the case first started in 2007, UMG wanted the judge to pass an order preventing Veoh from calling safe harbor under the DMCA. As you probably guessed by now, the judge said no dice.
Ultimately, the goal is to get our pretty backwards copyright law rewritten. Until our government stops thinking that it’s proper to serve someone with a $1.92 million penalty for doing something which did no provable harm, the law is broken.
