NEW YORK (Ben Sheffner for Billboard/Reuters) — Almost a decade after the major labels launched their legal assault on Napster, courts are still writing the rules of the road for the music business’s digital future.
Companies can’t set out to build a business based on their users’ infringement of copyright, courts had already ruled. But the precise meaning of that dictate remains in doubt. What steps must sites take to combat infringement? What are the proper penalties for those who infringe? This year, courts inched toward resolution of these questions, giving labels, publishers and artists a bit more certainty as they decide whom to work with and whom to sue.
Below are 2009’s top five cases that will shape the future of the music business.
UMG Recordings v. Veoh Networks
In September, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled decisively against Universal Music Group in the label’s copyright suit against video-sharing site Veoh.com. UMG had argued to the court that Veoh was liable for copyright infringement by encouraging users to upload videos, which Veoh translated into the proper format, organized and categorized, then ultimately streamed to millions of Web surfers — all without paying copyright owners. But the court held that Veoh qualified for a “safe harbor” under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, because the site followed a policy of promptly taking down videos upon notification from UMG and kicking “repeat infringers” off the site. [read: Wired]
