Nonprofit group goes to bat in UMG v Veoh
p2pnet view Freedom | P2P:- Veoh may be deceased, but the issues live on.
Time Warner, Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company, Spark Capital, Shelter Capital Partners, Tom Freston’s Firefly3 LLC, Jonathan Dolgen (former chairman of Viacom Entertainment Group), Intel, and Goldman Sachs are still in deep mourning, p2pnet said in April, going on:
“Because their video-sharing site Veoh is dead.
“And they’re out to the tune of $70 million — at the very least since their $70 mega grand was in original venture capital.
“Now ‘Video-sharing website Veoh Networks Inc. has just a month to file appellate briefs to defend its district court win over Universal Music Group’s copyright infringement claims”, says The Recorder, going on, ‘But the company has gone belly up and it is unclear if there’s money to pay lawyers or even the desire to fight’.”
On Recording Industry vs The People, Ray Beckerman summed it up, “The litigious UMG Recordings has succeeded in shutting the doors of a competitor by bringing a frivolous lawsuit against Veoh, and losing. But apparently the drain of the lawsuit caused the startup to fail.”
It “truly is dog-eat-dog in the venal universe occupied by corporate entertainment industry interests”, said p2pnet at the time.
Now, in an amicus brief filed in UMG v Veoh, the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, Association of College and Research Libraries, Center for Democracy and Technology, Computer and Communications Industry Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Internet Archive, NetCoalition and Public Knowledge have asked a federal appeals court to protect the “safe harbor” rules for online video service providers.
“By creating a clear path for innovators like Veoh to limit their liability for the copyright violations of their users, the statutory safe harbors helped foster the innovation environment that has made YouTube, Flickr, eBay, Blogger, and myriad other hosting-based services possible,” says EFF senior staff attorney Corynne McSherry.
“UMG is trying to turn back the clock and reinstate a climate of legal uncertainty that would harm new online businesses and the free expression they foster.”
The safe harbors are part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) giving sites immunity from monetary damages if they observe the DMCA’s “notice and takedown” procedures for potentially infringing content and comply with other legal requirements, says the EFF, adding:
“In a lawsuit first filed in 2007, UMG argued that the safe harbors don’t apply to any service that ‘displays’ or ‘distributes’ copyrighted material, rather than simply ’storing’ it. Last year, a federal district court rejected that argument. UMG appealed.”
… and identi.ca
p2pnet – Veoh and the DMCA, April 23, 2010
$70 million – Veoh bites the dust, February 12, 2010
Recording Industry vs The People – Despite beating UMG in the frivolous case it brought, Veoh has to close its doors, February 11, 2010
p2pnet – Victory for Veoh vs UMG, January 7, 2009
EFF – Recording Industry Giant Tries to Undermine ‘Safe Harbor’ Rules for Online Video Sites, July 26, 2010
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