There may be evidence that YouTube employees were behind some of the copyright infringement that dominated the video sharing Web site in its early stages.
Quoting anonymous sources, CNet reports that YouTube staffers may have uploaded unauthorized content to the site and knowingly left infringing videos on YouTube's servers. The sources cite confidential e-mails that emerged during Viacom's copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube, noting that they are crucial to the plaintiff's case.
The evidence is also reportedly in use by several content owners, who are suing YouTube in a separate lawsuit.
An entertainment attorney not involved with the case, Roger Goff, told CNet that the e-mails could amount to a "smoking gun" if they prove accurate. That's because the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which legally shields Web sites from the infringing actions of their users, is only valid if the site doesn't know about the unauthorized content, or quickly takes down the content upon discovery. Viacom will argue that the evidence shows that YouTube did know about the infringing content, and didn't take it down.
However, YouTube's defense will likely stay the same: At the time, Viacom was uploading its own content and authorizing existing content as a marketing tactic. That made it difficult for YouTube to tell the infringing content from legitimate videos. A YouTube spokesman, Aaron Zamost, told CNet that the alleged evidence is misleading as characterized, and comes on the heels of setbacks for Viacom. He was likely referring to Viacom's copyright infringement case against a similar site, Veoh, which was recently dismissed.
Reading over this news makes me realize how legitimate YouTube has become over the last couple years. The site continues to be a hub for user-generated content -- it's supposed purpose from the beginning -- while continuing to add more premium content from record labels, Hollywood and television studios. More and more, this lawsuit looks like a quest for revenge on Viacom's part, rather than a move that would have any impact on the site's current operations.
