Appeals court revives Viacom’s copyright suit against YouTube

A federal appeals court reversed a lower court ruling on Thursday and said Viacom can move ahead with its lawsuit against Google’s YouTube.

Viacom first sued Google for $1 billion in 2007, claiming that it infringed Viacom’s copyrights by hosting thousands of videos, including clips of shows such as “South Park” and “The Daily Show” on YouTube.

{mosads}The Digital Millennium Copyright Act creates a legal safe harbor for companies that host infringing material on their websites, but they must remove the material when made aware of it.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed Viacom’s suit in June 2010, ruling that YouTube complied with the requirements of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and was not liable for the infringing clips.

But the two-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling on Thursday. The judges decided that “a reasonable jury could find that YouTube had actual knowledge or awareness of specific infringing activity on its website.”

The case now goes back to the District Court.

A Viacom spokesman said the company is “pleased” with the ruling.

“The Court delivered a definitive, common sense message –
intentionally ignoring theft is not protected by the law,” the spokesman
said in a statement.

A YouTube spokesman emphasized that the court rejected several of Viacom’s arguments about how aggressively Web companies have to monitor content on their sites. 

“The Second Circuit has upheld the long-standing interpretation of the DMCA and rejected Viacom’s reading of the law,” the YouTube spokesman said. “All that is left of the Viacom lawsuit that began as a wholesale attack on YouTube is a dispute over a tiny percentage of videos long ago removed from YouTube. Nothing in this decision impacts the way YouTube is operating. YouTube will continue to be a vibrant forum for free expression around the world.”