San Francisco - Video hosting site Veoh has prevailed in a copyright infringement suit filed against the company by Universal Music Group, with the court ruling that transcoding and other activities utilized in serving streaming video are covered under the "safe harbor" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Universal sued Veoh over music videos uploaded to the site by users, arguing that the safe harbor that protects service providers from liability from copyright infringement committed by users of their services applies only to storing such material on a server.

The court, however, concluded that activities including transcoding files uploaded by users into Flash format; breaking large uploaded files into chapters; and allowing access to uploaded videos via streaming and downloading are covered under the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA.

"This is good news not just for Veoh, but also for YouTube and every other site that hosts material uploaded by users," Fred voh Lohmann, senior staff attorney with digital civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote in a blog post.

"The ruling should also help YouTube (NASD: GOOG) in its ongoing battle with Viacom, which also turns on the continuing strength of the DMCA safe harbors."

Related Links:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/01/umg-v-veoh-another-victory-web-2-0

http://www.eff.org/files/UMG%20v%20Veoh%20order.pdf (PDF)

http://snipurl.com/9jzi6 (DMW previous coverage)