Online Video Content and Legal Liabilities

Legal liabilities are important factors to be familiar with and follow carefully for any area of business, online video making included.  As I have stated in previous blogs, it is very important to be aware of copyright laws and legal liabilities.  While listening to some Entertainment Law Update podcasts, the lawsuit between Viacom and YouTube were discussed.  

The lawsuit between Viacom and YouTube began back in 2007 in regards to YouTube being aware of and allowing copyright infringement.  Back in 2010, the court came to the decision that YouTube is protected under the Safe Harbor Provision and cannot be held liable for the copyright infringement of their users.  This Safe Harbor Provision protects businesses of being held liable for copyright infringement unless there is evidence of actual knowledge, willful blindness towards, and the right and ability to control any infringements.    

Now again earlier this year, Viacom returned to its lawsuit against YouTube. Viacom’s claim against YouTube is that YouTube is aware of its users copyright infringements and does not monitor them well enough.  However, the court still stands that there is not sufficient evidence that YouTube is turning a blind-eye to any copyright infringements.  As described under the Safe Harbor Provision, as long as YouTube acts according to the law when they are informed of specific copyright infringements, they are not responsible for seeking out infringements.  It is incumbent on copyright holders to monitor their own content and notify YouTube of any infringements of these works.  

Another case of copyright infringement was against MegaUpload employees in January of 2012.  In this case the court decided that it was no longer protected by the Safe Harbor Provision due to the evidence of willful blindness towards copyright infringement.  In fact, evidence showed that MegaUpload was rewarding video uploaders who posted video that received large numbers of views, many of these videos being copyrighted material.  The court alleged that MegaUpload showed willful blindness to take down notices, removing only the infringement content specifically named in the notice and knowingly keeping other copies of the same content on other servers.  The result of this case was the shutting down of the MegaUpload company.

What we can learn from these cases is that the Safe Harbor Protection only holds video sharing sites responsible to a certain degree in terms of copyright infringement.  As long as these sights uphold the law by removing copyright infringements upon receiving the notification, they are safe and within the law.  As a result, we, as filmmakers and video uploaders, are responsible for knowing and fully understanding copyright laws and are held liable for any lawsuits or consequences that copyright holders may hold against us for using their works without permission.  So, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, know your copyright laws, and most importantly avoid infringement all together by using your own original work