IP Democracy: Universal Sues Video Sharing Sites

It finally happened — a major entertainment company filed suit yesterday against two video sharing sites. Universal Music, which once had threatened to sue YouTube but instead cut a deal with the top-ranked video sharing site, filed a complaint against Grouper and Bolt.com, accusing the sites of allowing users to swap copyrighted songs illegally.

The suits were filed at the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Western Division and accuse the two sites of mass infringement, seeking $150,000 for each case of infringement, plus attorneys fees and litigation costs.

Universal’s choice of targets is interesting. Grouper is now owned by Sony Corp., one of Universal’s big rivals in the music business. Bolt, on the other hand, is a small start-up that nonetheless boasts of 15 million users and an impressive list of advertisers.

On the site today, Bolt VP Jay Gould has posted the following message.

Hey everyone!

We have been notified today that Universal Music has filed a lawsuit against Bolt because our members upload videos which may contain their musicians’ copyrighted videos.

We understand the love you have for your favorite musical artists, but Bolt respects the rights of copyright owners such as Universal Music and their artists, and we ask that you please do so as well by not uploading their videos to Bolt.

You can still watch your favorite music videos by visiting your favorite bands websites. Bear with us - we hope to sort this out soon!

Although I haven’t seen the suits, clearly Universal plans to test the validity of the “take-down” provisions in the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), which spell out procedures that copyright owners can follow to request that an online service provider take down copyrighted material. Grouper, Bolt, YouTube and other video sharing sites have been relying on this take-down provision to protect their activities, noting that they comply with legitimate take-down requests when submitted. In its terms of use, Bolt, like virtually all other video sharing sites, spells out its commitment to complying with the DMCA.

Fasten your seat belts — the legitimacy of the video sharing business and the sustainability of the DMCA’s take-down provisions are about to be intensely scrutinized in the legal arena.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on October 18, 2006 9:05 AM to IP Democracy