You might remember that $1,000,000,000 lawsuit Viacom filed against YouTube a few years ago because people were uploading clips of TV shows and movies that Viacom owned. The reason they could put a billion-dollar price tag on that suit is that Viacom stuff like MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Comedy Central and VH1, and they used to own CBS and Showtime when they filed the suit.
You might also know that last week, a judge .
This shouldn't surprise anyone. You know why? The (DMCA) says, essentially, if a website allows users to upload information, the site is not responsible for verifying the copyright on it. Instead, the website tells users they can only upload stuff they own the copyright on, and if the copyright holder asks the site to take something down, they'll take it down.
So that's what they do.
You know why it works that way? Because if YouTube, or Flickr, or Facebook, or any other site had to filter everything that was posted and check the copyright on it, those services wouldn't exist.
What Viacom should have done was play by the rules YouTube had in place: Tell us what you own the copyright on, and we'll take it down.
The ruling does not mean that media companies should be any more concerned about their content. The judge didn't say that copyrighted material could remain on YouTube, he said YouTube didn't have to pre-screen it, essentially upholding the DMCA.
Traditional media companies like Viacom really need to learn the rules of the new playground, rather than trying to make the new playground conform to the old playground's standards. Wouldn't the legal fees they put into the case be better served developing a way forward in a new media world?