Posts Tagged ‘piracy’

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Viacom Wins Reversal in Landmark YouTube Case (Reuters)
A U.S. appeals court dealt Google Inc a major defeat by reviving lawsuits by Viacom Inc, the English Premier League and various other media companies over the use of copyrighted videos on Google’s YouTube service without permission. Bloomberg Viacom sued in 2007, seeking $1 billion in damages and claiming that YouTube users were illegally uploading thousands of videos of Viacom television programs, such as South Park and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, and movies from its Paramount Pictures studio. ZDNet The case translates to putting the burden of responsibility back on the website owner, rather than the uploader, which could send massive ripples through the online community from search engines to social networks, like Facebook and Google+. Gizmodo The outcome of the case will hinge entirely on whether YouTube “knew” that all of this copyrighted material was out there and what “knowing” actually means. Read more

As we’ve mentioned in the past, VKontakte, the largest social network in Russia, is a hotbed for all sorts of rebellious activity.  From helping to spark protests to file sharing, the site is often the subject of scrutiny and admonishment.  A recent study at Paidcontent shows that while labels are trying to improve music sales in the country, it’s been decreasing steadily due to a “culture of copyright infringement.”

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Will we miss the iconic site? Some former users may have forgotten that it was still around. Some users may not be surprise that Napster is being gobbled up by Rhapsody.

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PC Mag reports that movies including Disney/Pixar’s Cars, Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda 2, and Columbia Pictures’ Black Hawk Down were also available for viewing on YouTube. And, it doesn’t stop there with more movies cropping up with every click.

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Barely a week after launch, a Seattle-based streaming TV startup filed suit against major broadcast networks, hoping that a court will approve of it’s attempt to retransmit live television broadcasts over the Web.

Unlike streaming video-on-demand services like Hulu and Netflix, the plucky ivi, Inc. says it will give viewers access to more than 20 live TV streams from networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox for the low price of $4.99 a month. Only one problem: Nobody ever told the networks.

Because it’s “retransmitting” TV streams online, ivi claims that it does not have to pay the pesky FCC mandated retransmission fees like a cable company would, but it does pay content royalties to broadcasters through the copyright office, and releases viewership data to Nielsen so networks can factor it into their advertising calculations. According to ivi, it’s actually doing broadcasters a service by distributing existing broadcast feeds to a larger audience. However that hasn’t kept most of the major broadcasters from sending cease and desist letters to the company.

Rather than wait to get sued, ivi filed a suit of its own against broadcasters including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and Major League Baseball, seeking a declaratory judgment from the state of Washington’s legal system.

The 18-person ivi says it has gone to great lengths to prevent content piracy by encrypting its feeds, and founder Todd Weaver scoffed at a comparison between ivi and online piracy. “We’re conforming to us copyright law exactly to the letter and paying the original broadcaster. We’re more comparable to the early cable companies. It has nothing to do with piracy whatsoever, and we frown upon piracy,” he said in a statement.

For the legally-minded, a ful .pdf of ivi’s complaint can be found here.

Speculations of why Fox and Paramount are not making a deal with YouTube is because Google, who is the parent company, supports pirate sites by including them in searches, linking to them and advertising on them.

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