Skip to main content

Copyright Infringement?

Can we get some consistency please?

This past week, a Federal Judge in New York granted Google's request for a summary judgment against Viacom based on the "Safe Harbor" act. Viacom had filed suit (and does plan to appeal this ruling) stating that YouTube is a "den of thieves" since many copyrighted works are uploaded every day to the site.

Since some of these legal thingumyjigs may be foreign to you, I'll break it down a bit.

First, a summary judgment is requested at the outset of the case by one of the sides. Essentially, either the plaintiff or the defendant are telling the presiding judge, "look, your honor, this is a huge waste of time; the other side has no chance in hell of winning this case so can we please cut to the chase? Judge Judy comes on in 15 minutes." While this is requested in a relatively frequent manner, it is rarely granted because judges are generally predisposed to give everyone their day in court. The fact that this was granted in such a huge case where there are undoubtedly layers upon layers of intricacies is quite surprising.

Second, the Safe Harbor provision of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA, passed in 1996) states that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are not liable for the actions of their users even though it is not unusual, even expected to some degree, that said users will engage in some nefarious activity (like MP3 file sharing).

One could argue that a site as popular as YouTube has ability to screen every video to see if it is copyrighted material. First, videos are uploaded at a ridiculously fast pace: in May 2009, 33 minutes of video were uploaded every second to the site. Secondly, the set of copyrighted works is so vast that there is no possible way to check the videos against the entire body of works.

The counter argument, of course, is that if they can't do it then the site shouldn't be allowed to operate in the first place. But I digress...

The reason I yearn for some consistency is that, just last month, another Federal Judge agreed with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) when they filed suit against Limewire stating that they continue to operate even though the service is frequently used (probably more often than not) to peddle copyrighted material around the Internet.

What's the difference between the two cases? I don't know. Both YouTube and Limewire are services provided as a convenience to the Internet community. Both are used for sharing content.

The only possible difference I can see is that material is actually uploaded to YouTube, meaning that a copyright claim submitted to Google will result in the offending video being pulled from the site. Limewire does not accept uploads - it merely acts as a broker between two people's computers - so therefore it is powerless to remove the content. It could try to prevent the advertisement of copyrighted material for sharing purposes, but what's to prevent me from taking an original work that I wrote and giving it a name that is identical to a work in the same genre from another artist?

I'm not one to advocate the intentional scoffing of the law, but it seems to me that these two cases are identical in spirit and yet they have far different outcomes. On top of this, the RIAA has garnered a reputation for bullying other entities because they have their heads so far up their asses that they refuse to admit that their business model is extremely outdated. But, again, I digress...

In any case, it will be very interesting to see if Limewire appeals this ruling now that the Google ruling has been rendered. In the end, we're all affected because the direction that either case takes (don't forget that Viacom has stated its intention to appeal) will have an impact on the way we currently use the Internet. After all, you upload content to Facebook, MySpace, etc. and there isn't a single person on the planet that subscribes to none of these ubiquitous services.

Popular posts from this blog

It's Easier to Fail at DevOps than it is to Succeed

Slippery when wet Since the term DevOps was coined in Belgium back in 2009, it is impossible to avoid the term whether in discussions with colleagues or in professional trade magazines.  And during the years while this movement has gained momentum, many things have been written to describe what elements of a DevOps strategy are required for it to be successful. Yet in spite of this, there is an interesting data point worth noting: not many organizations feel there is a need for DevOps.  In a Gartner report entitled DevOps Adoption Survey Results (published in September 2015),  40%  of respondents said they had no plans to implement DevOps and 31% of respondents said they hadn't implemented it but planned to start in the 12 months after the survey was conducted. That left only 29% who had implemented DevOps in a pilot project or in production systems, which isn't a lot. "Maybe it's because there truly isn't a need for DevOps," you say.  While t...

So What is this IPaaS Stuff, Anyway?

 In my last post , I discussed how no-code/low-code platforms fulfill rapid development of business applications - addressing the needs of the Citizen Developer (a Gartner term  first used around 2009).  I also commented on how this specific objective limits their ability to provide true integration capabilities, which require the flexibility to adapt to the myriad variations of infrastructure.  This is a concern because companies often have acquired legacy systems via M&A activity while simultaneously investing in new technology solutions, resulting in a mishmash of systems with multiple ways of accessing them. In this post, I'd like to examine how the needs of the latter group are met by describing some key capabilities that are "must-haves" for any company looking to execute on a digital transformation strategy.  In order to do this, let's define who the target user base is for such a technology platform. Disclaimer:   I work for MuleSoft (a division...

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Imposter Syndrome is a cruel partner in your professional journey.  If you're not familiar with the term, it is essentially the feeling that you do not belong in a particular profession or that you do not deserve a specific role or set of responsibilities.  (You may read more in the Wikipedia article .)  I did not hear the term myself until I participated in a mentoring group for young employees at my current job - some of the young employees said they had this, and I won't deny a bit of surprise when I read what it is. If you feel this way, you're obviously not alone.  A good friend of mine suffers from this in no small amount in spite of the fact that she's an upper mid-level manager at her company with an organization of approximately 40 people reporting to her.  She feels this way because she never completed college, but fails to realize that her hard work and dedication to being the best that she can be is why she has been repeatedly promoted through the ra...