In 2007, Viacom, the media conglomerate that owns, among other properties, MTV, Comedy Central, and Paramount Pictures, filed suit against YouTube.com, citing copyright infringement. Their argument was that YouTube, which is owned by Google, wasn’t doing enough to prevent users from posting copyrighted material owned by Viacom on the site.
Google’s defense was base on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which provides protection for website and ISP owners who provide the ability for users to post material for viewing on the web. Under the law, companies cannot be held liable for copyrighted material posted by their users, and are protected from lawsuits by the copyright owners. Last year, a federal court ruled in Google’s favor. Viacom, which is asking for over $1 billion dollars in damages, quickly appealed to the Supreme Court, calling the lower court’s decision fundamentally flawed.
Last week, Google issued a 107 page argument against the appeal and, in addition, brought a number of big guns from the internet, copyright organizations, and human rights groups along with them, among them Facebook, Ebay, Yahoo, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Human Rights Watch, reporters Without Borders, the National Venture Capital Association, and others, along with 44 law professors who specialize in copyright and internet law. The groups’ arguments in defense of Google and YouTube cover a wide range of internet, information, and copyright issues, from a number of different perspectives. Facebook, Ebay, and Yahoo argue that “safe harbor has succeeded in achieving its legislative purpose of promoting innovative services and of encouraging copyright holders and services providers to work together to combat copyright infringement.” The EFF, meanwhile emphasizes the possible hampering of freedom of expression and innovation. Human Rights Watch and other groups stress the importance of social networking sites and other new media platforms as “important tools for promotion of human rights” and that “important global developments [such as the protest movement in the Middle East] depend directly on preserving the effective safe harbor Congress” created with the DMCA.
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