In an affirmation of liberal Internet policy, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a video sharing web site did not infringe on the music video copyrights of the recording industry’s biggest label, UMG Recordings Inc.
In the unanimous decision, judges Harry Pregerson, Raymond Fisher, and Marsha Berzon interpreted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in favor of San Diego-based Veoh Networks Inc. The 1998 law provides protection for content-sharing web sites from copyright infringement claims if the sites are unaware of the infringement or if, when made aware of the infringing activity, they expeditiously remove the material.
Ballard Spahr of counsel and President of the Copyright Society of the USA, Corey Field, acknowledged that the court’s ruling upheld the protections provided to Internet companies under the DMCA. He also speculated that it was time for a revision of the law.
“The DMCA has become a bit antiquated," Mr. Field said, pointing to the breakneck development of Internet capabilities since the law's passage in 1998. In order for copyright owners to enforce their intellectual property, he explained, there is a formal process for sending a "takedown notice" to the Internet service provider.
"It's like a game of whack-o-mole, you have to constantly be sending notices and monitoring your content," he added. “It's debatable whether, when Congress drafted the DMCA, they contemplated just how fast infringing content could pop back up.”