Universal Music Sues Veoh Over User Videos
The music industry versus the internet is heading into round ten million. In the left corner, Universal Music Group, a struggling, archaic distribution service is trying to get a foothold in the new online ring. In the right corner, new media, user-generated online video distributor Veoh isn’t looking worried.
Veoh opened the bout last month with a preemptive swing, but now Universal has decided to file a lawsuit against the video sharing site claiming that Veoh “follows in the ignominious footsteps of other recent mass infringers such as Napster, Aimster, KaZaA, and Morpheus, engaging in high-tech theft in the name of ’sharing.’”
This fight looks a lot like the one down the hall where Google And Viacom are duking it out in another ring. Presumably Universal decided to pick on a smaller site because Viacom has already stolen all the thunder that comes from taking on the big boys.
Veoh has taken the punch, but doesn’t look to be not backing down. Veoh previously issued a statement saying that it “derives no financial benefit from the availability of allegedly infringing material on its system.”
Veoh claims that it “lacks the ability and right to directly supervise the content provided by the 85,000 video publishers that frequent and populate its site and utilize its software.”
Interesting Universal has never filed a DMCA copyright notice with Veoh and more than likely is simply trying to drive the site out of business, which doesn’t look like it’s going to work.
Be sure to join us later this week for round 1,000,000,001. Featuring the same old players suing whichever new site is hot.
[via Ars Technica]
