U.S. Judge Tosses Suit Over Hosted Pirated Content

September 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment

A federal judge on Monday ruled that safe-harbor provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protected Veoh Networks from liability for hosting pirated clips uploaded by users. U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz, who granted Veoh’s motion for summary judgment in a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Universal Music Group, said that the DMCA “does not place the burden of ferreting out infringement on the service provider.” The 29-page order said that he found Veoh’s policy on terminating repeat offenders who post pirated material satisfies Congress’ intent that “those who repeatedly or flagrantly abuse their access to the Internet through disrespect for the intellectual property rights of others should know that there is a realistic threat of losing that access.” Universal sued Veoh for copyright infringement in 2007, alleging that Veoh was wrongly hosting pirated music videos. Universal alleged that the site was “a massive copyright infringer that has built its business on the back of others’ intellectual property.” Veoh argued that it took steps aimed at preventing pirated clips from appearing on the site, including using filtering technology. It also said that it removed clips upon request, as per the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions. The decision marked the second major courtroom victory for Veoh. Last year, Veoh was victor in a similar copyright lawsuit brought by IO Group, parent company of Titan Media. CLICK HERE for additional details at XBIZ…