Viacom appeals summary judgement in YouTube case

In June of this year, YouTube (Google) made quite a victory in the legal proceedings with Viacom, one of the world's largest media conglomerates. Now, not unexpectedly, comes the news that Viacom is appealing the verdict. 

The dispute between Viacom and YouTube basically centres on the question whose legal responsibility it is to prevent illegal (copyright-infringing) content from appearing on YouTube’s website. Viacom believes this is YouTube's responsibility, as a result of their business model. YouTube is convinced that is protected from liability for copyright infringement by their users under the Safe Harbour provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Within that regime it is firstly the rights holder’s (Viacom’s) responsibility to notify a hosting provider (YouTube) about the presence of illegal content. 

The U.S. court dealt with the case in a summary judgement; YouTube is a hosting provider and thus has no obligation to monitor the hosted content, Judge Stanton ruled (verdict). The case did not come before a jury.

Immediately after the verdict was announced, Viacom made a statement it would have the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as quickly as possible. 

Several commentators believe that Viacom has a strong case in appealing the summary judgement. See for example Scott Zebrak's extensive legal analysis of the scope of the Safe Harbour provisions of the DMCA in the National Law Journal. 

Source: Cnet.com