Copyright Talk

If you pay any attention to digital technology and copyright issues, you know that there is and has been a huge issue regarding the posting of copyrighted material without permission on user sites - and YouTube has been the lightning rod for this issue because it’s, well, it’s YouTube. YouTube is huge beyond belief, it is incredibly user friendly, and everybody and their kids (mostly their kids) is using it now.

For some time now, Viacom and YouTube have been in a big lawsuit that Viacom filed against YouTube (and against Google, which owns YouTube). The simple description of the reason for the lawsuit is that Viacom thinks YouTube should be trying harder to prevent copyright infringement on it’s site, and YouTube is saying it doesn’t have to do more.

Before I give you the interesting recent development in this case, I need to give you a capsule review of what the overall fight surrounding websites that include material posted by users is about. First, it’s not just about YouTube, it’s about any site that includes content from users, including forums and bulletin boards. Here’s the whole issue in a nutshell: Copyrighted material should not be published without the consent of the owner. In the paper publishing world, it has generally been the responsibility of the publisher to make sure that ther eis permission for everything that is published. In the internet world, websites have typically claimed they merely provide a space but are not traditional publishers, and therefore it is the responsibility of the person posting the material to make sure that there is permission. Which means that discovering and fighting infringement becomes an after the fact job for the owner of the copyrighted material instead of a before the fact preventive job of the publisher. And that is the crux of the fight - does the publisher/website have to do the work, or does the copyright owner have to do the work?

In the Viacom/Google case, much of the evidence has to do with which party is in the better position to do the work of identifying potential copyright infringement. Google has said, basically, that it is not economically or technologically feasible for them to review everything posted. Viacom has said the same thing about its own position.

Now, with that background, here’s the newest development in the case. Viacom has been using a small company to collect information about material posted on YouTube in order to build its legal case. Google is now seeking access to the documents provided to Viacom in order to prove that Viacom can, in fact, collect the information it needs to pursue copyright infringements on YouTube. In other words, Google believes that by collecintg information on just how much of its stuff is impermissibly posted on YouTube, Viacom is proving Google’s case that Viacom is perfectly capable of doing the work itself.

Sounds a lot like two siblings squabbling over who has the most time to do their chores. You read more about this in The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch.