Background: Earlier today, U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton, Manhattan, ruled that Google and YouTube were protected by the DMCA safe harbor in a $1 billion lawsuit brought by Viacom for material hosted on the video service. Order is here.
The following statement is attributed to Sherwin Siy, deputy legal director of Public Knowledge:
“We are very pleased with the outcome of this case. It shows that the current structure of copyright law works well for even the largest of content-hosting sites.
“As we have continually said, the burden to point out allegations of infringement is with the content provider, and the burden of taking down material lies with the service provider. Had Viacom won this case, that burden would have shifted dramatically. As the law now stands, prompt compliance with take-down notices shields an online service provider from liability.
“We hope those policymakers who look continually to make our copyright law more draconian and unbalanced will take this ruling to heart, and note that the current law is working quite well to protect content creators while taking into account the responsibilities of online service providers.”
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.