With concerns rising in the music, film and TV sectors regarding the unofficial distribution of their video content via video-sharing site YouTube, industry execs are sure to watch with interest a lawsuit just filed in LA by a journalist who claims the website has infringed his copyright.
Anyone can upload video content to the YouTube website, and while many members upload their own home made videos, a significant portion of the content available to view consists of music videos or clips from films and TV shows, which have been uploaded without the content owners' consent. The site has so far avoided legal action from the content industries partly because some in those sectors recognise the promotional potential of YouTube, and partly because the company has been generally good about removing any unofficially distributed videos if and when a copyright owner makes a complaint. On a legal level, the company claims America's Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects it from liability for any copyright violation committed by its members.
But US journalist Robert Tur of the LA News Service, best known for filming the infamous beating of Reginald Oliver Denny during the 1992 LA riots, seemingly disagrees. He claims that his Denny footage has been uploaded to YouTube without his consent, and has been viewed more than 1000 times. He is suing YouTube for $150,000 for each time the video was uploaded, and is seeking an injunction to stop any additional distribution of his work via the service.
Should the case go to court the interpretation of the DMCA in this case could set a precedent regarding distribution sites like YouTube, and if it ruled in Tur's favour could spark numerous other lawsuits by content owners against the site and rival services.
Owners of YouTube maintain that they are protected by the DMCA in this case, stressing that Tur never approached them directly regarding the video, and that they removed it from their site as soon as his objections were known.