The lawsuit Viacom filed Tuesday opens a new chapter in the debate over rights in the digital age. Call it grandstanding, negotiating, a blow for rights, a blow against users, it’s certainly a hot topic. Then again, $1 billion lawsuits have a way of focusing attention. Just a smattering of the way others are looking at it:
— WSJ (sub. req.): The suit — while expected — raises the stakes, particularly when it comes to the DMCA. “… some legal experts say there is little consensus or precedent on how that protection applies to video-sharing sites like YouTube. The safe-harbor dispute could hinge on several key issues, such as the extent to which YouTube has direct knowledge of copyright clips posted on its site without permission and whether it profits directly from them.” Why aren’t other media companies likely to follow or join the way the — music labels did in previous cases? Many have economic ties with Google already — Time Warner (AOL), News Corp. (MySpace), etc. TW General Counsel Paul Cappuccio: “Time is up for YouTube … It’s no longer permissible for them to have unauthorized copyrighted material on there.” But he also suggests compromise is in order from the owners – trade protection for licensing and revenue sharing.
— NYT: “Just a few weeks ago, Google’s chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, seemed confident that this courtship of old-line media companies would prove fruitful. … Now Google has hit a wall.” Annette L. Hurst, who represented Shawn Fanning in the Napster case, doesn’t see the outcome as a slam dunk for either. “YouTube and Google obviously face an enormous risk from this lawsuit. But it is not obvious, based on the current state of the law, who should win based on the facts we have seen so far.
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