Court Rules Against UMG In 2007 Veoh Suit

Lost Lawsuit

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP has lost its 2007 lawsuit against VEOH NETWORKS, a video-sharing site that UNIVERSAL claimed infringed on its copyrights by distributing online videos that featured music from its artists. Judge HOWARD MATZ of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of CALIFORNIA, reports THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, "ruled that VEOH satisfied the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's criteria for exemptions from liability for hosting and distributing copyrighted content. Those criteria include that a company isn't aware that the content is infringing and that, once becoming aware, the company acts 'expeditiously' to remove it."

"VEOH has shown that when it did acquire knowledge of allegedly infringing material -- whether from DMCA notices, informal notices, or other means -- it expeditiously removed such material, and UMG has failed to rebut that showing," the order read.

UNIVERSAL called the ruling "wrong," in a statement, and said it would appeal it. "The balance between copyright holders and technology that Congress sought in enacting the DMCA has been upended by this decision," the statement read.

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