Universal Music Too Impatient To Wait For Earlier Lawsuit Results; Sues Veoh

Legal Issues

from the you-sued-me?--ok,-I'll-sue-you dept

A month ago, we detailed the long history of Universal Music mistakenly suing just about every online video hosting firm (other than Google’s YouTube, who gave Universal Music a sweetener to sue everyone else and skip YouTube). The conclusion to that story was that, following a typical “pay up or else” threat from Universal Music, video hosting site Veoh took the initiative and preemptively sued to have a judge claim that what it was doing was perfectly legal. Rather than wait to hear what the judge has to say on the matter, Universal Music simply went right ahead and sued Veoh anyway. Once again, this is a misguided lawsuit against a company that is doing nothing wrong for a service that isn’t taking any money away from Universal Music. People sometimes complain that we spend too much time pointing out the mistakes of the recording industry. We’d love to stop it — but the record label execs seem to have absolutely no recognition for how badly they continue to muck up their own businesses.

Filed Under: copyright, safe harbor
Companies: universal music, veoh

It's Time To Harmonize Service Provider Safe Harbor Rules

Legal Issues

from the because-confusing-rules-are-bad dept

Eric Goldman points us to a relatively recent paper by Mark Lemley that takes a look at internet safe harbors for service providers. Lemley agrees with many of us around here that safe harbors make perfect sense, since there’s no reason to put the liability on a third party who is simply providing a service, rather than the person actually breaking the law. However, his complaint is that there are different safe harbor rules written into different laws and they have different requirements. For example, copyright safe harbors are a part of the DMCA and require a specific process to receive protection. Safe harbors for libel, however, are in the CDA and work differently than the ones in the DMCA. Since the purpose of both safe harbors is the same, it makes sense, as Lemley suggests, that the various safe harbor rules be put under a single umbrella and harmonized. It’s such a reasonable idea it’ll probably never happen.

Filed Under: cda, dmca, safe harbor

Veoh Sick Of Waiting For Lawsuit; Pre-emptively Sues Universal Music

Legal Issues

from the stop-with-the-threats dept

Speaking of Edgar Bronfman and Universal Music being confused about the market, it appears that the company is being sued by online video site Veoh. This one requires going back a little and looking at the history to understand what’s happening. In September last year, Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris made the ridiculous claim that YouTube and MySpace owed Universal Music millions because they were hosting videos that contained Universal’s music. Note that this wasn’t about downloadable (or even streamed) song files. It’s about videos that happen to have Universal music in the background. There’s no credible way for Universal to claim that anyone was using music in such a video as a substitute for actually purchasing music. If anything, these videos help promote the music. This was, clearly, a blatant money grab (and one that would actually tend to cut off the promotional value of these videos).

Soon after this, Google bought YouTube, and as a part of the deal had them pay off Universal Music and the other labels. A rumored part of the deal was that the record labels would not sue YouTube, but would sue YouTube competitors. Universal Music obliged, suing smaller sites Bolt and Grouper. There was an attempted settlement, but problems with the settlement quashed a potential acquisition for Bolt recently. A month later, Universal also sued MySpace. Basically, it’s decided to shake down every online video service, hoping for some cash settlements even though it would probably lose in court.

Last month, apparently, Universal Music alerted Veoh that it was “considering” suing the company for “massive copyright infringement,” though it failed to provide any details. It’s a typical shakedown situation. Basically a threat with nothing to back it up other than a “you wouldn’t want to end up like those other websites, now would you?” implied threat. Veoh apparently decided to fight back. Rather than wait for Universal Music to file a lawsuit, it’s gone to a judge to ask for a declaratory judgment that Veoh’s service is perfectly legal under the DMCA safe harbor provisions. It’s great to see at least one company stand up to Universal on this one — especially after the disappointment of Google paying off the record labels on this issue. Hopefully the judge recognizes the issues at stake.

Filed Under: copyright, dmca, infringement, music, safe harbor, videos, youtube
Companies: google, myspace, universal music, veoh, youtube