So finally a judge rules in favor of Google. The judge stayed that Google is protected under the DMCA. What this means is that YouTube lives another day and that Viacom did not get what they want. What this doesn’t mean is that it’s ok for people to upload copyrighted materials to YouTube or any other site. What this means is that the average user can not be punished by watching a video that had copyrighted material just because some one else uploaded it. This is what the DMCA protects sites like YouTube from. As long as YouTube cooperates with copyright owners, they are not breaking laws by having copyrighted material up on their site. The law states that YouTube and similar sharing sites must take down content if the copyright owner requests, but have no obligation to if the owner does not request this. This means that if Viacom or similar companies want their videos down bad enough, they’re going to have to do the hunting themselves.
Personally, I think this is great. Viacom has made many users mad over the years by biting the hand that feeds. It’s good to see a huge company like Viacom lose in court over a lawsuit like this. It’s refreshing to know that our country hasn’t completely went to crap and that judges do indeed have sense.
It may, however, be worth mentioning that Viacom plans to appeal the judgement and take it to a higher court. Lets see how that goes.