The legal climate got a little cooler for Google and YouTube Friday.
When Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion last year, analysts worried that the popular viral video site would eventually become the target of copyright infringement lawsuits filed by big content owners. (It's pretty easy to upload copyright-protected video to YouTube.) Viacom already filed a $1 billion suit against YouTube in March.
Now a British soccer league with similar complaints has filed suit against Google's YouTube in a New York district court. The Football Association Premier League Limited claims YouTube regularly plays host to video of its matches without its permission. The suit, filed Friday, is a class action; the plaintiffs invite other video producers who feel they've been infringed to pile on against Google and YouTube.
Perhaps more troubling is NBC's decision to join in a friend-of-the-court brief with Viacom on behalf of journalist Robert Tur, who filed a copyright infringement suit against YouTube last summer. The brief, which NBC and Viacom filed Friday in an L.A. district court, represents a decidedly negative turn in NBC's somewhat bi-polar approach to Google/YouTube on video copyright. NBC has a content agreement with Google, yet has publicly criticized YouTube for the way it monitors for copyrighted video.
The timing of Friday's court filings might be troubling to Google and YouTube. The two said just last week they would officially begin taking payment for ads run around some YouTube video. There may be a connection between that announcement and Friday's court filings.
YouTube has always taken refuge behind the Safe Harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) against accusations of copyright violation. That provision was designed (long before YouTube showed up) to protect "enabler" sites like Napster who may passively play host to copyrighted digital content.
Viacom's attorneys are now saying that the DMCA's Safe Harbor was never meant for sites like YouTube. They argue that YouTube is basically different from Napster because it "directly" profits from the content hosted at its site (through advertising).
Google and YouTube better hope the courts don't buy that arguement. If even one of them does, a landslide of copyright infringement lawsuits against Google/YouTube might ensue.
I don't know if Viacom or NBC have ever actively promoted (if that's the correct word to use) a "viral marketing" video before, but the fact remains that YouTube and Google video are a vital part of such schemes. Being the "central clearinghouses" of video is what makes them work (Google/YouTube) in the first place.
When I see a copyrighted video which I enjoy, it has at least served the purpose of driving me to the original source of such material.
My impression is that Viacom and NBC are just jealous of the success of Google/YouTube. The fact that both are just beginning to see the light and embarking upon their own ventures into Web video speaks loudly as to their motives behind these ridiculous lawsuits. It's either that, or they are in bad need of some Preparation 'H' to alleviate the symptoms which often cause such anti-social behavior. :P