In early 2007, media giant Viacom demanded that Google take down copyrighted content from YouTube.
Afterwards, Viacom sued the site and its search giant owners for $1.2 billion USD, claiming Google facilitated the uploading the copyrighted videos through YouTube while doing little to deter it.
This week, Google has won the landmark case over the media companies, with a federal judge throwing out the lawsuit.
“Mere knowledge of prevalence of such activity in general is not enough,” writes Judge Louis Stanton. “The provider need not monitor or seek out facts indicating such activity.”
Viacom said it plans to appeal, calling the Judge’s ruling “fundamentally flawed,” as it does not reflect recent Supreme Court decisions.
The media giant is behind such hit channels like MTV and Comedy Central, and also owns the Paramount movie studio. A few of the shows that Viacom alleged were readily available on YouTube, in their entirety, were “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” “South Park,” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
Google had argued they were entitled to “safe harbor” protection under the DMCA, and it appears that Judge Stanton agreed.
Result for: copyright lawsuit
Kinney Lee Malone, son of former popular Mississippi bluesman Junior Kimbrough and the record label Fat Possum Records have decided to dismiss a copyright lawsuit filed in 2008, where Malone was seeking about $1 million and royalties.
U.S. District judge W. Allen Pepper said this week the case was closed as both sides agreed to dismiss it.
It is unclear whether there was any financial settlement between the two parties.
Kimbrough died in 1998 and had a few hit songs in his life. Malone sued FPR claiming they were using the songs without permission and were not paying royalties.
Result for: copyright lawsuit
In another move that shows the RIAA has little respect for anything besides money, Pittsburgh news channel WTAE.com is reporting that Nineteen-year-old Ciara Sauro has been sued by the anti-piracy group for illegally sharing 10 songs.
Making the situation so awful is the fact that Sauro is hospitalized every week due to her pancreatitis and her need of an islet cell transplant. Her current accumulation of medical bills totals over $100,000.
WTAE says that “because she didn’t defend herself against a copyright lawsuit, a federal judge in Pittsburgh ruled she’s a music pirate, and that could cost the Sauros almost $8,000 in fines.”
Sauro herself paints a sad story. “I already have severe depression. I mean, it’s so hard to sit there and think that I have to get in trouble for something that I didn’t do. It’s not fair.”
Lisa Sauro, Ciara’s mother adds: “You want to know the truth? I make $8.25 an hour. She can’t work. This child is very sick. I mean, what am I supposed to do?
“I just want them to know that I have to go through enough stress in my life with my sickness and my family, and I don’t think that they should go after people just because they want money for something that’s not even fair to us.”
RIAA, you have already sued dead women, 8-year old children, printers and 90-year grandmothers, but this is truly disgusting. This girl could possibly die as a teenager, yet you are suing her over $10 USD worth of tracks that she did not even download; just let it go.
