Google and YouTube maintained that those who posted the videos were responsible for infringement and that they only provided an Internet site and service. Are YouTube and Google responsible for the copyright infringement by others?
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YouTube was founded in February 2005 by three former employees of PayPal. When YouTube was launched, a press release described it as a site that “allows people to watch, upload, and share personal video clips.” YouTube was so successful that within one year it was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion. By March 2010, site traffic on YouTube had soared to more than 1 billion daily video views, with more than 24 hours of new video uploaded to the site every minute. |
Explanation
Nonetheless, as per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the companies are not responsible for the various copyright violations of their users, as long these companies remove the content which has been notified by the copyright holders. The company faced a barrage of lawsuits in the past which targeted the services rendered to users.
In fact, the case of Viacom suing YouTube for $1billion forced the company to find ways of dealing with copyright infringements by installing a feature for reporting copyright infringements, issuing notifications to those who upload flagged and also giving the complainants a chance to hear and act on their takedown requests. It is President Clinton who signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998. Since YouTube and Google provide platforms where copyrighted information could be distributed, broadcast or published without authority, if the companies do not remove such content from their sites, it would amount to a breach of Article 12 of the DMCA.
In the European Union, there is the Copyright Directive, which is the law that is helping in modernizing copyright regulations, prevent piracy as well as make sure that the original creators of content are duly paid for their work. There has particularly been a gap in the music industry where YouTube hosted music that clearly violates the rights of the original creators. As such, if the company does not pull down such posts of pirated music, it will be liable to pay damages for profiting from copyrighted material without being responsible enough to compensate the artist.
References
Zapata-Kim, L. (2016). Should YouTube's Content ID Be Liable for Misrepresentation under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. BCL Rev., 57, 1847.
Presseller, S. (2017). Copyright Infringement Via Social Media Live Streaming Shortcomings of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Ariz. St. U. Sports & Ent. LJ, 7, 357.
Answer
Although the users of Google and YouTube are only asked to upload content which belongs to them, and they have the right to view and use such content, many people still upload copyrighted content every day.
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