NBC and Viacom Looking to Support Robert Tur in Court
NBC and Viacom are against YouTube in a legal case that may help determine if the video-sharing site is liable for copyright violations committed by users. — NBC Universal and Viacom have filed a request with the U.S. District Court …
Context & Ripple Effects
Robert Tur, an individual footage owner, has a running copyright suit against YouTube — and the industry heavyweights are now piling onto it. Weeks after Viacom sued Google over clips appearing on YouTube, NBC Universal and Viacom have filed a request with the U.S. District Court to back Tur's case, turning a single plaintiff's fight into a test of whether the site is liable for what its users upload.
The move extends a pressure campaign rather than opening one: Viacom's lawyer argued publicly in March that YouTube knows it is violating copyrights, and NBC Universal had already answered YouTube's growth by announcing a joint video venture with News Corp. Lending legal weight to Tur's smaller case lets both companies attack the liability question without staking their own litigation alone.
First-order effects
- Tur's case gains the legal resources and industry weight of two major media companies, sharply raising the stakes for Google, which must now defend YouTube's liability position against a coalition rather than one plaintiff.
- The U.S. District Court hearing the case faces direct lobbying on the question that would define every user-upload platform's exposure: responsibility for infringing material posted by users.
Second-order effects
- Other content owners get a low-cost template: attach themselves to existing suits instead of filing their own, spreading legal costs while concentrating pressure on Google.
- The push strengthens the case for licensed alternatives — NBC Universal and News Corp's joint video venture positions itself as the rights-respecting channel advertisers can buy into while YouTube's legal footing is contested.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, liability for user uploads becomes the decisive cost line in user-generated video, forcing platforms toward proactive filtering and licensing deals and reshaping which sites can afford open uploading at scale.
The trend: Major media companies are shifting from negotiating with user-generated video platforms to litigating their business model directly, using court coalitions to test platform liability.