Major copyright owners in the entertainment industry and in popular fashion have been frustrated by recent court rulings reinforcing the protection offered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) Safe Harbor Provision. The Safe Harbor Provision draws its authority from the DMCA Title II, the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act.
The Safe Harbor Provision protects online service providers (OSPs) from copyright and trademark infringement liability if the service providers follow certain steps;
1) An OSP must take measures to prevent
counterfeiting, and
2) After being notified of infringing content by the copyright owner or his agent, the OSP must promptly take down the content in question, and
3) The OSP must take steps to prevent repeat infringers.
Recently we drew your attention to the lawsuit between the entertainment industry giant Viacom and Google where Viacom was alleging more than $1billion in damages. Judge Stanton set a very high bar for any plaintiff wishing to prove that a defendant had actual knowledge of any specific instance of infringing content. More on that suit can be found here;
Back in March both Google and Viacom had asked the court for summary judgment rulings in their favor. Viacom argued that YouTube was financially benefitted by allowing users to post and share programs including “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and “South Park” on its website without authorization from Viacom (owner of these copyrighted materials).
