Viacom International, Inc. v. YouTube, Inc.

YouTube, Inc. (defendant), a company owned by Google, Inc. (defendant), operated a website on which users could upload videos for viewing. Viacom International, Inc. (Viacom) (plaintiff), a company that owned many copyrights, filed suit against YouTube for inducement and contributory copyright infringement. Viacom had previously sent notice of specific infringing content to YouTube’s designated agent, and YouTube promptly removed this content from its website upon receiving notice. However, Viacom alleged, in part, that YouTube had actual knowledge of thousands of hours of additional content still on YouTube’s website that infringed Viacom’s copyrights. YouTube filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that, as a service provider pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it was entitled to the safe harbor provided by § 512(c) of the DMCA, which exempts service providers from liability for infringing materials on their systems as long as the service provider has no actual knowledge of such materials. Viacom filed a cross-motion for judgment, arguing that YouTube was not entitled to § 512(c)’s safe harbor because YouTube’s awareness that ubiquitous infringement was occurring on its website was enough to qualify as actual knowledge of infringement under § 512(c) regardless of whether YouTube had knowledge of the specific instances of infringement.