Drew Wilson
October 24th, 2009, 12:56 PM
A criminal investigation has been launched against senior executives of YouTube and parent company Google in Hamburg, Germany, over allegations of copyright infringement, according to media reports from that country. The case started after a complaint by German music rights holders; Hamburg’s prosecutor has formally requested assistance from U.S. colleagues to compel YouTube to produce log files identifying who uploaded as well as who viewed 500 specific videos.
It’s unclear if the investigation will ever result in an actual court case. German prosecutors routinely throw out criminal investigations against copyright infringement, leaving it up to the parties involved to pursue civil lawsuits or settle out of court. The case does, however, once again demonstrate that Viacom’s massive one billion-dollar lawsuit isn’t the only copyright dispute Google has to tackle. There are regularly lawsuits all around the globe accusing YouTube and Google as running a worldwide video platform. Indeed, at a time when fragmented rights and universal access continue to collide, not irking rights holders seems impossible.
The current investigation started as the result of a formal complaint by Hamburg-based lawyer Jens Schippmann, who represents 25 German musicians, producers and music publishers. Schippmann sued Google in civil court earlier this year, alleging that videos of his clients have been viewed more that 125 million times without any compensation. Schippmann now alleges that Google didn’t respond to requests to take down more that 8,000 videos and that his clients were denied access to the company’s Content ID Program. He also claimed that users would utilize YouTube as a kind of “covert file-sharing platform,” tagging his clients videos with keywords like “album quality” to encourage downloading.
Google strongly objected to these claims, according to a report by German IT news site Netzwelt.de. German Google spokesperson Henning Dorstewitz rejected the idea that executives or other employees of Google or YouTube were committing criminal acts of infringement. “We cooperate with thousands of rights holders across the globe,” Dorstewitz told Netzwelt.
More... (http://newteevee.com/2009/10/23/achtung-criminal-investigation-against-youtube-underway-in-germany/)
...and once again, the attempt at a lawsuit will fail miserably. Of course, that won't stop the copyright holders from trying to kill any hint of innovation on the internet.
YouTube - We'll keep innovating until we're sued.
It’s unclear if the investigation will ever result in an actual court case. German prosecutors routinely throw out criminal investigations against copyright infringement, leaving it up to the parties involved to pursue civil lawsuits or settle out of court. The case does, however, once again demonstrate that Viacom’s massive one billion-dollar lawsuit isn’t the only copyright dispute Google has to tackle. There are regularly lawsuits all around the globe accusing YouTube and Google as running a worldwide video platform. Indeed, at a time when fragmented rights and universal access continue to collide, not irking rights holders seems impossible.
The current investigation started as the result of a formal complaint by Hamburg-based lawyer Jens Schippmann, who represents 25 German musicians, producers and music publishers. Schippmann sued Google in civil court earlier this year, alleging that videos of his clients have been viewed more that 125 million times without any compensation. Schippmann now alleges that Google didn’t respond to requests to take down more that 8,000 videos and that his clients were denied access to the company’s Content ID Program. He also claimed that users would utilize YouTube as a kind of “covert file-sharing platform,” tagging his clients videos with keywords like “album quality” to encourage downloading.
Google strongly objected to these claims, according to a report by German IT news site Netzwelt.de. German Google spokesperson Henning Dorstewitz rejected the idea that executives or other employees of Google or YouTube were committing criminal acts of infringement. “We cooperate with thousands of rights holders across the globe,” Dorstewitz told Netzwelt.
More... (http://newteevee.com/2009/10/23/achtung-criminal-investigation-against-youtube-underway-in-germany/)
...and once again, the attempt at a lawsuit will fail miserably. Of course, that won't stop the copyright holders from trying to kill any hint of innovation on the internet.
YouTube - We'll keep innovating until we're sued.