Judge Howard Lloyd of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has thrown out a copyright infringement suit brought against Internet video provide Veoh Networks by the adult entertainment firm Io Group Inc., saying Veoh’s active efforts to protect copyright owners’ rights covered the company from any liability for piracy on the service under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) “safe harbor” provision. “The DMCA was intended to facilitate the growth of electronic commerce, not squelch it,” Judge Lloyd wrote, as he granted summary judgement to Veoh.
The ruling sets a potential precedent for Viacom’s $1 billion copyright infringement suit against Google over videos of Viacom content (like The Daily Show and South Park) posted to video sharing site YouTube. Why? Io Group has asserted that Veoh should be required to prescreen any videos submitted to the service for possible copyright infringement; Io Group also asserted that by transcoding digital video from the submitted format to Flash video, Veoh was infringing on content-owners’ rights. Judge Lloyd rejected both arguments, noting that “The court finds no reasonable juror could conclude that a comprehensive review of every file would be feasible.”
“The DMCA protects services like YouTube that follow the law and respect copyrights,” said YouTube lawyer Zahavah Levine, in a statement. “[YouTube] has gone above and beyond the law to protect content owners while empowering people to communicate and share their experiences online.”
Veoh had actually decided to remove all adult material from its service before Io Group’s lawsuit was filed.
