YouTube Passes Milestone, Slapped with Lawsuit
Mere days ago, video sharing site YouTube announced that they are now showing an astounding 100 million clips a day to the bored, the procrastinating and the easily amused. The momentous news seems to have come with a booby prize, however, as Los Angeles News Service sent YouTube an invitation to federal court Friday, according to Hollywood Reporter, Esq.
YouTube is no stranger to legal threats; it regularly receives (and complies with) cease & desist orders demanding the removal of copyrighted works from the site. But it also instituted a 10-minute length rule to keep uncut tv shows and movies from being uploaded, and its reputation for bending over backward to please copyright holders has led to deals with some of Hollywood’s big boys. Famously, they feuded with NBC over the latter’s SNL sketches, then partnered with the network months later to plug the fall TV line-up.
All of that seems to mean little to LA News Service head Robert Tur, who has copyrighted aerial footage taken during some of LA’s most infamous crimes – think OJ, the North Hollywood bank robbery shoot-out, and the ’92 Riots. It’s the last of these that’s cited as cause for the suit: it’s alleged that one clip of a notorious, oft-televised beating was uploaded to YouTube and viewed 1,000 times over the course of a week, with no compensation rewarded to Tur.
One could argue that’s it’s not YouTube’s fault if its users misuse the site. That’s what the RIAA decided recently when they mailed C&D letters directly to YouTubers who the organization felt were violating copyrights. LA News Service seems bound and determined to sue the messenger, though, citing the rulings against Grokster and Napster. Techdirt points out that YouTube is doing nothing to encourage bad behavior (as in the Grokster ruling), but that doesn’t mean it’s a walk for for the site. Tur has a history of muscularly defending his copyrights, and wants $150,000 per infringement. A ruling in favor of that penalty could send the vultures after YouTube and sink it for good.
