(Wow, third Google-related post in a row!) Late this week, a Japanese group of media companies got YouTube/Google to cave on as many as 30 000 copyright infringing videos. Well, as reported by the Wall Street Journal and others they were yanked.
Now you might think that as long as you’re posting videos on YouTube, its YouTube that’s on the hook.
Not so.
The BBC reports that the Premier League, a British soccer league to us Yanks (and Canucks), has threatened a small website for not hosting videos, but posting copyright videos on YouTube. Sure enough, YouTube has yanked them already, but it provides, I think an interesting precedent for people who love soccer. And … uh, people who love posting copyright videos, too I suppose.
Author: Tony Hung
Tony Hung is the editor of the BlogHerald. He is also a physician finishing his last year of residency in General Internal Medicine, and blogs at Deep Jive Interests , where he rants, occasionally, on new media topics.
With all of the backlash about YouTube getting sued, I think that the real risk is the users who are uploading the content will be sued. The DMCA will protect YouTube, but if you get caught uploading something that people want to protect you are on the line. It’s too bad people have to be so restrictive with their content, but them the rules. Hopefully, we only see a few fringe producers try and enforce them.