On August 27, 2008, U.S. District Judge Howard Lloyd in the Federal Court sitting in San Francisco dismissed a copyright infringement claim against video-hosting service Veoh, saying that the company had done what was required under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to respect copyrights.  Namely, it adopted and implemented an appropriate policy for identifying infringing content, removing the content, and disabling the accounts of repeat infringers.

Adult entertainment company Io Group filed suit against Veoh when several video clips of its registered content appeared on Veoh.  However, Io Group did not send Veoh a DMCA takedown notice. IO argued that Veoh should be responsible for reviewing every video uploaded to its site before they were made available for viewing by its users. Judge Lloyd disagreed, stating that Veoh did its duty under the DMCA when it removed the videos, holding that “the DMCA was intended to facilitate the growth of electronic commerce, not squelch it… The court finds no reasonable juror could conclude that a comprehensive review of every file would be feasible.” 

In summing up his reasons for dismissing the copyright infringement suit against Veoh, Judge Lloyd went on to offer some guidance for falling under the safe harbor provision of the DMCA:

“the court does not find that the DMCA was intended to have Veoh shoulder the entire burden of policing third-party copyrights on its website (at the cost of losing its business if it cannot). Rather, the issue is whether Veoh takes appropriate steps to deal with copyright infringement that takes place. The record presented demonstrates that, far from encouraging copyright infringement, Veoh has a strong DMCA policy, takes active steps to limit incidents of infringement on its website and works diligently to keep unauthorized works off its website. In sum, Veoh has met its burden in establishing its entitlement to safe harbor for the alleged infringements here.”

Those of you hosting user-generated content may want to read the entire opinion for tips on playing nice with the DMCA (and avoiding liability).

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In remarks published on Friday, the Swedish government said that Sweden should require Internet service providers to hand over information identifying people involved in illegal file sharing. The government plans to present a proposal on implementing this policy within the next few month.

Sweden has previously been seen as haven for file sharers, with several members of parliament going so far as to call for decriminalizing file sharing. That all changed when Swedish prosecutors filed charges against four people suspected of running Sweden-based Pirate Bay, one of the world’s most popular websites for illegal downloading of films, music and computer games.

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ChinaDaily.com reports that prosecution for online copyright infringement reached record levels in China last year. However, Yan Xiaohong, vice-minister of the National Copyright Administration (NCA), at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office stated that “Internet copyright infringement is still very prevalent in the country.” Yan called for tougher legislation. “Fines and sentences meted out have not been enough,” he said. “We must make offenders realize the costs of violation are too high for them to continue.”

Meanwhile, P2Pnet.net is circulating Fair Copyright for Canada principles in an attempt to diffuse, moderate or influence new copyright laws severely limiting the use of digital media under consideration by Canadian Parliament. Unlike the Best Use Principles for User-Generated Content, this position moves upstream from practice to policy, by attempting to affect the outcome of the Canadian DMCA.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., that pug was definitely Truman.

Washington Post writer, Monica Hesse, notes that the incidence of large corporations infringing the copyrights of individuals is soaring. (Unlike Canada, in the U.S. one must register copyright in order to have any enforceable rights–seldom done by authors of user-generated content.) Ms. Hess goes on to comment that “in an increasingly user-generated world where the public is the artist, sometimes it’s the big boys who get grabby. And the questions that arise are about ownership, but they are also about fairness, and changing culture, and ultimately, the search for authenticity.”

As our norms are changing and user-generated content is rapidly overtaking studio content, does it still make sense that our governments are focusing on protecting large content owners? More importantly, is China, Canada, or the United States ready for a conversation about this.

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The Movie Blog reports that 20th Century Fox has used the takedown notice of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to suppress negative reviews of “Reno 911!: Miami.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation already fears the chilling effect that YouTube’s new content filtering system would have on the fair use of copyrighted content. However, 20th Century Fox has gone further still in actively attempting to block the fair use of its content. It will be interesting to see whether The Movie Blog sends a counter notification to YouTube, whether YouTube reposts the content, and what 20th Century Fox does next.

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