Caption: Viacom lawsuit fued against YouTube.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/i/ne/pg/fd_2009/100509_viacom_youtube.jpg
The media giant Viacom had filed a lawsuit to Youtube and Google for the copyright violation issue on 13 March 2007 (Mirchin, 2007). It is said that Youtube has allowed Viacom-copyrighted video clips to be played publicly. Viacom announced that as much of 150,000 unauthorized video clips but of copyrighted programming owned by Viacom that were released unlawfully, were viewed for more than 1.5 billion times on Youtube (Mirchin, 2010). The ignorance of the copyright issue in publishing unpermitted media content has caused a chaotic aftereffect. As a result, Viacom has received more than $1 billion financial damage due to the violated copyright issue (Mirchin, 2010). Youtube eventually won the huge lawsuit and is currently protected under the U.S copyright law (Kravets, 2010).
The winning of Youtube has preserved a significant element in online publishing, that is the freedom of expression. The free sharing of information over the internet is now effective on websites like Flickr, Facebook, or other hosting websites (Kravets, 2010). Internet users can retain their rights to view the published materials over the internet; however the level of difficulty has increased for the original authors to protect their rights.
Who is to be blamed, the millions of users who uploaded the copyrighted materials or the hosting web that failed to filter the unauthorized contents? Youtube had blamed the loophole in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "safe harbor" provision, which protects the hosts from any liability, unless they have the actual knowledge of the copyright violation (Suderman, 2010). It is impossible to cross-check every single materials of their originality as millions of videos are upload everyday.
I use Youtube frequently for entertainment and academic purposes. Personally I think that Youtube's victory is crucial for both the online media publishers and the users. Google company announced that the it was an important victory for both the company as well as the billion of people who use the website to communicate and share experience with the others around the world (Kravets, 2010).
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References
Chilling Effects, n.d, DMCA safe harbor, chillingeffects.org, viewed 14th November 2010,
http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/.
Klein, B 2009, Even U.S government information may be protected by copyright air force lawyers send DMCA notice to Youtube, vol. 17, no. 4, viewed 14th November 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=110&sid=afc77030-7c8a-45ab-9034-20cd1d539f8c%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=37211358#db=f5h&AN=37211358.
Kravets, D 2010, Googles wins Viacome copyright lawsuit, wired.com, viewed 14th November 2010, http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/06/dmca-protects-youtube/.
Mirchin, D 2007, Copyright: Viacom's $1 billion claim against Youtube, infotoday.com, vol. 24, issue 5, viewed 14th November 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&hid=22&sid=892fe8ee-dade-4f64-b2ea-4ac3787d4d61%40sessionmgr15.
Mirchin, D 2010, Viacom v. Youtube: big victory for UGC websites, infotoday.com, vol. 27, issue 9, viewed 14th November 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&hid=22&sid=60efd0ab-4350-4fc1-8387-cfeb88026020%40sessionmgr4.
Suderman, P 2010, Youtube set free, Academic Search Alumini Edition, vol. 42, no. 5, viewed 14th November 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=110&sid=03186cfa-cc2d-4508-b42c-4ae6e3afb995%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a2h&AN=53575877#db=a2h&AN=53575877.
U.S copyright Office, 2009, Copyright law of the United States, copyright.gov, viewed 14th November 2010, http://www.copyright.gov/title17/.
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