One Billion Dollar YouTube Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Settled

On March 18, 2014, Google Inc (Google) and Viacom Inc (Viacom) jointly announced the resolution of the copyright litigation over YouTube. As we previously reported in 2007, Viacom sued Google, the parent company of YouTube, for one billion dollars. Viacom alleged that YouTube was liable for copyright infringement as it was willfully blind to the user-uploading of unauthorized clips of Viacom’s copyrighted shows onto YouTube. Google and YouTube contended that YouTube complied with the “safe-harbor” provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and was thus insulated from liability. This litigation has dragged on over the last seven years. In 2010, a US District Court in New York granted summary judgment in favour of Google, but in 2012 the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned the decision in part and remanded the case back to the District Court. In 2013, the District Court again held that YouTube was within the scope of the DMCA’s “safe-harbour”. Viacom then sought to appeal this second decision. The joint announcement, which was made shortly before the scheduled March 24 hearing before the Second Circuit, indicates that the settlement “reflects the growing collaborative dialogue” between the two companies. See also: http://bit.ly/1ifWyu1; and http://cnnmon.ie/1j1CXBd Summary by: Cheryl Cheung