Venture capitalists invested in the popular video sharing website Veoh can rest easy following yesterday’s decision that investors in the site can not be held liable in Universal Music Group’s current lawsuit against the company.
Veoh allows for user-submitted content, just like its bigger competitor YouTube, but also shows premium content from Hulu.
Universal, in its lawsuit, claims that Veoh has “built its business on the back of others’ intellectual property,” and that massive copyright infringement occurs daily on the site. Veoh, just as most video-sharing site do, does not restrict what is uploaded but does take down videos at the request of others, including the record labels and film studios.
The decision, by Judge A. Howard Metz noted that the investors can not be liable, as they simply provided money and did not encourage copyright infringement.
Result for: veoh
CBS Entertainment has announced that it will be adding more classic shows to its CBS.com online video network and its partnering CBS Audience Network sites.
Beginning this morning, full episodes from “The Love Boat”, “Beverly Hills 90210″, “Twin Peaks”, “Family Ties”, and “Perry Mason” were made available on all of CBS’s online video networks and its partners, including CNET, AOL, Microsoft, Comcast, Joost, Sling Media, Veoh, and Bebo.
The broadcaster noted that more content was coming from “one of the largest television programming libraries in the entertainment business” and it seems in the upcoming months the company hopes to add more and more content.
While other broadcasters have made their content available only through certain outlets, CBS is going the other way, allowing its content to be viewed anywhere where there are fans and advertising revenue.
Result for: veoh
CBS has said that it has struck a deal with Yahoo to allow its web videos to be shown by the latter company. The deal is part of an ongoing plan for CBS to have new outlets online for its TV shows.
The deal means Yahoo would join the CBS Audience Network, which now includes huge web outlets such as YouTube, AOL, MSN,, Joost, Veoh, and Bebo.
The whole Network offers short movies and shows from CBS, CSTV and Showtime, and with this new deal should reach over 90 percent of the web. All the clips are supported by advertising and are free to users.
CBS has always maintained that it would rather have its content available to as many internet users as possible, unlike broadcasting rivals such as NBC Universal which have rigidly tight restrictions on all content.
