NBC lines up against YouTube in copyright case
NBC Universal and Viacom have come out against YouTube in a legal case that could help to determine whether the video-sharing site is culpable for copyright violations committed by users. — On Friday, NBC Universal and Viacom filed a request …
Context & Ripple Effects
The filing extends a confrontation that began when Viacom sued Google over clips running on YouTube in March 2007, after negotiations over licensed distribution broke down. Days later, a Viacom lawyer argued publicly that YouTube knowingly infringes copyrights, framing the case as willful rather than accidental. Now NBC Universal has joined Viacom in asking the U.S. District Court to back Robert Tur's separate suit — two of the biggest US media companies coordinating legal pressure rather than fighting alone.
The timing matters because both plaintiffs have commercial alternatives in motion: NBC Universal announced a joint video venture with News Corp in March 2007, and YouTube days earlier began paying popular independent creators such as Lonelygirl15 and LisaNova. Syndication of this story by Mashable alongside CNET's report shows the litigation being read as a proxy fight over who controls online video distribution.
First-order effects
- Google's YouTube now faces legal pressure on a second front: Tur's case, amplified by NBC Universal and Viacom's court filing, tests whether the site is liable for users' uploads independently of the Viacom suit it is already defending.
- NBC Universal and Viacom gain leverage in any renewed licensing negotiation with YouTube — every court document filed strengthens the argument that unlicensed traffic carries real legal cost.
Second-order effects
- Rival distributors benefit directly: the NBC Universal–News Corp joint venture announced in March 2007 can position itself as the rights-cleared alternative while YouTube's legal exposure makes advertisers and content partners hedge.
- YouTube's countermove is already visible in its creator-payment program launched days before this filing — buying goodwill among independent uploaders whose loyalty becomes the site's main defense of its value proposition.
Third-order effects
- If the court accepts the media companies' reading that a hosting site is culpable for user infringement, the safe-harbor assumption underpinning user-generated video platforms narrows industry-wide, forcing upload services toward proactive filtering or pre-clearance deals.
- The pattern — sue first, then negotiate from a courtroom — would entrench a playbook where major rights holders treat litigation as a standard pricing tool for platform licensing, not a last resort.
The trend: Major media companies are converging legal action with competing platforms of their own to force user-generated video sites into licensed-content economics.