A New York district judge has again granted summary judgment
for YouTube in Viacom's copyright infringement suit, and Viacom again plans to
challenge that decision.
Back in 2010, Judge Louis Stanton of the U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of New York ruled
that YouTube qualifies for protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act, saying that YouTube removed illegal content promptly as required by
federal copyright law.
Viacom appealed to the Viacom to the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Second Circuit, arguing that "actively encouraging and
facilitating rampant infringement is clearly illegal and is not protected by
the DMCA -- a law intended to provide safe harbor against liability where
online services providers take reasonable steps to prevent infringement."
The Second Circuit reversed the summary judgment.
Again on Thursday, Judge Stanton again said that the DMCA
safe harbor provisions protected YouTube from all of Viacom's copyright
infringement claims and dismissed the complaint a second time.
"This ruling ignores the opinions of the higher courts
and completely disregards the rights of creative artists," Viacom said in
a statement. "We continue to believe that a jury should weigh the facts of
this case and the overwhelming evidence that YouTube willfully infringed on our
rights, and we intend to appeal the decision."
Viacom, whose properties include MTV, Nickelodeon and
Paramount Pictures, filed suit against YouTube and parent Google in 2007,
alleging they engaged in deliberate copyright infringement designed to boost
traffic to YouTube and was seeking more than $1 billion in damages.
The DMCA grants online service providers
immunity from copyright liability if they remove unauthorized content after
they receive a "takedown" notice from the copyright holder.
