After a mammoth court case, Google has won its case against Viacom, who accused Youtube of copyright infringement and were looking for compensation in the region of $1 billion. The US District Court Judge Louis Stanton agreed with the Google argument saying that the DMC Act (Digital Millennium Copyright) defends the Google Company from the Viacom claims. In fact he backs Google on pretty much every point and possibly opens the door to more copyright infringement.

Although YouTube execs were aware that video’s on the site violated copyright, “mere knowledge of prevalence of such activity in general is not enough” to support Viacom’s claims, Stanton wrote in his 35 page decision on the case. The reason? Well, the DMCA, signed into law back in 1998, that granted “safe harbor” to service providers who do not know about specific copyright violations and that fix copyright violations when they learn about them. And because YouTube exists by letting viewers upload video to their site, but remove them if copyright holders complain, it’s in the clear, says Stanton.

If the ruling holds up, it’s a big blow to traditional copyright laws. Or spun another way, it’s a huge victory for technology companies using the DMCA as a defense.

Google said in a  statement:-

Today, the court granted our motion for summary judgment in Viacom’s lawsuit with YouTube. This means that the court has decided that YouTube is protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) against claims of copyright infringement. The decision follows established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are protected when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them manage their rights online.

This is an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other. We’re excited about this decision and look forward to renewing our focus on supporting the incredible variety of ideas and expression that billions of people post and watch on YouTube every day around the world.

Viacom said in theirs:-

We believe that this ruling by the lower court is fundamentally flawed and contrary to the language of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the intent of Congress, and the views of the Supreme Court as expressed in its most recent decisions. We intend to seek to have these issues before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as soon as possible. After years of delay, this decision gives us the opportunity to have the Appellate Court address these critical issues on an accelerated basis. We look forward to the next stage of the process.

So will this case end up in more piracy across the net? Well yes and no, the existing sites that get around piracy by linking to content hosted in other Countries (such as China) will continue. And now the video sharing sites can relax because the onus is on the copyright holders to report infringement rather than them to police it.

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