Copyright And Safe Harbor Provisions - Google And Viacom Headed For War.

[Msterbeau]

"It has been just over a year since Viacom launched its $1 billion lawsuit against Google for "brazen disregard of intellectual property laws" on YouTube. Although we haven't heard much news about the case as of late, some fightin' words have come out of both sides recently to indicate that the case is still going strong. There's no sign of an impending settlement, either, as Viacom is still beating the piracy drum and Google continues to stand its ground. Because of this, the eventual outcome of the Viacom suit may set a legal precedent that could send ripples throughout the entire Internet."

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080...afe-harbor.html

About safe harbor: http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/faq.cgi

[Destroit]

Damnit...why's Viacon and RIAA always gotta come by and ruin EVERYTHING?

[Shade Everdark]

Heaven knows I harbor no love to the large and sprawling corporations, which means I should have no stake in this fight.

That said, I hope Google cuts off Viacom's collective wang and stuffs it down its collective throat.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

I guess I'm late to the party on this one, having not heard of it, at least i don't think i have. That first link is broken, and the second one is so extensive i cant find the corporate summary article explaining what the argument is about.

[Msterbeau]

I guess I'm late to the party on this one, having not heard of it, at least i don't think i have. That first link is broken, and the second one is so extensive i cant find the corporate summary article explaining what the argument is about.

First link fixed.

The second link was more about safe harbor itself then the actual case. Here's the relevant part:

"Question: What are the DMCA Safe Harbor Provisions?

Answer: In 1998, Congress passed the On-Line Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA) in an effort to protect service providers on the Internet from liability for the activities of its users. Codified as section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), this new law exempts on-line service providers that meet the criteria set forth in the safe harbor provisions from claims of copyright infringement made against them that result from the conduct of their customers. These safe harbor provisions are designed to shelter service providers from the infringing activities of their customers. If a service provider qualifies for the safe harbor exemption, only the individual infringing customer are liable for monetary damages; the service provider's network through which they engaged in the alleged activities is not liable."

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Ah ok heres the money shot (in combination with Beau's quote above)

YouTube [owned by google] still facilitates unauthorized distribution of copyrighted content, Viacom executive chair Sumner Redstone alleged yesterday during a conference in Seoul, South Korea, and the entire media industry is suffering for it. "When we filed our lawsuit, we not only served our own interests, we served the interests of everyone who owns copyrights that they want protected," Redstone said, according to Dow Jones. "We cannot tolerate any form of piracy by anyone, including YouTube...they (YouTube) cannot get away with stealing our products."

Hrmm. Not sure YouTube counts as an "ISP". Even if it does, and even though i am a hardcore Internet pirate, i do feel a bit... uneasy about it.

There's a lot less incentive for people to put out good product if they know its going to be available for free 6 hours after its released, right?

[Head Wreck]

in UK laws the terms must be defined, is this sowith US law, and if so, what do they define an ISP as being

[Msterbeau]

Ah ok heres the money shot (in combination with Beau's quote above)

Hrmm. Not sure YouTube counts as an "ISP". Even if it does, and even though i am a hardcore Internet pirate, i do feel a bit... uneasy about it.

There's a lot less incentive for people to put out good product if they know its going to be available for free 6 hours after its released, right?

First.. More on the subject: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080...he-pirates.html

I somewhat agree with your statement about good product. Many artists, though, will do what they love regardless, and do it well. They'll just find new ways to make money... if that's what their intent is. And that segues into the new link I posted.. Companies must, to some degree, change their marketing and content distribution models to take advantage of new technologies and new consumer behaviors.

[freydis]

The same sort of uproar happened with VHS many moons ago. Then, the market figured out how to adapt, and still make money. They'll do it again.