Owners Of Video Copyrights Must Monitor The Internet

The Southern District of New York recently announced its decision in Viacom International Inc., v. YouTube Inc., in favor of YouTube.

In the case, the court identified one key issue: Is a general awareness of an infringing activity on an online site or service enough to raise a "red flag," and therefore deprive the service provider the protection of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), safe harbor from liability or is knowledge of specific infringement

required?

The court determined that service providers are protected by the DMCA because the mere knowledge of a prevalence of infringing activity in general is not enough and that service providers do not have an obligation to monitor their sites or services for the purpose of identifying infringing activity. This now leaves the owners of copyrights to videos with the burden of monitoring the internet for infringement.

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