Universal (Finally) Sues Veoh
A month after Veoh preemptively sued Universal for relief against what they felt was an impending suit, Universal has followed through reports Bloomberg, though I can’t find the complaint anywhere online yet.
Yesterday, UMG filed briefs in their defense in the initial suit citing cases againstGrouper Crackle, Bolt (remember them?) and MySpace as precedent for dismissal, stating in a notice:
Specifically, all of these actions involve copyright infringement claims by UMG against defendants’ “user-generated video” websites.
These actions assert that defendants’ websites directly, vicariously and contributorily infringe Plaintiffs’ copyrights by allowing users to upload files containing Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, copying those works and then facilitating and encouraging further infringement of those works by third parties all over the world.
Let’s hope Eisner still knows some good lawyers from his Disney Days.
Meanwhile, the Veoh blog is down and their PR folks have been working public opinion with a statement saying “It’s unfortunate that UMG prefers to continue their pattern of litigation rather than contribute to the important discussions going on within our industry.”
All posturing aside, this is a discussion that will need to take place in a courtroom sooner or later, and hopefully Veoh will have the balls to fight it there now.