By Chris Castle
It’s been just over two years since Maria Schneider sued YouTube for copyright infringement. But the court has now cleared a path for her to actually proceed with her main case by dismissing–emphatically–YouTube’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim.
Schneider sued YouTube in 2020 on behalf of a proposed class of small copyright owners, arguing the platform only protects large copyright owners from infringement while allowing pirated content from others in order to draw in users. The group said major companies have access to YouTube’s advanced Content ID software to scan for and automatically block infringing content, while individual creators are left “out in the cold.”
But that’s not the critical part. Maria’s lawsuit alleges that YouTube YouTube removed copyright management information (CMI) in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 1202(b)–potentially intentionally.
The amended complaint states that YouTube knew that files containing audio and/or video works routinely contain CMI, that CMI is valuable for protecting copyright holders, and that the distribution of works with missing CMI on YouTube has induced, enabled, facilitated, and concealed copyright infringement. The plausible inference from these and similar allegations is that YouTube removed the CMI from plaintiffs’ works with knowledge that doing so carried a “substantial risk” of inducing infringement.
One could see how anyone who intentionally removes one brick from the complex wall that protects big infringers like YouTube from truly massive liability for copyright infringement would be in a whole heap of trouble for inducing infringement (which gets you into Grokster land).
Personally, it’s my view that this is exactly what YouTube and Google do on a massive scale and that they should pay the class damages that will dwarf all the fines these people have already paid for everything from violations of the Controlled Substance Act to competition law violations. Truly Carl Sagan level damages…billions and billions.
We’re lucky Maria’s on the side of the angels. Fight on.
The Trichordist 