San Francisco – Viacom (NYSE: VIA) has appealed its loss in the $1
billion copyright infringement lawsuit it brought against Google’s (NASD: GOOG) YouTube in
2007, which a federal judge dismissed earlier this year before the case went to
trial, the Associated Press reported. U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton ruled
in June that YouTube should be considered a service provider under the auspices
of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and therefore not liable for
copyright infringements committed by users of the service.
Judge Stanton also
noted YouTube’s good faith efforts to remove copyrighted videos when presented
with valid takedown notices from copyright holders.
Viacom’s appeal, which will
be helmed by former U.S. solicitor general Ted Olson, argues that Judge Stanton
ignored the fact that YouTube knew it was hosting copyrighted material, but did
nothing because that copyrighted content was attracting more viewers than its
user-generated videos.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3xhq4bm
(AP)
http://tinyurl.com/27yxaas
(DMW previous coverage)
