3 Count: Hiding the Ball
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1: YouTube Says Creators are ‘Hiding the Ball’ With Copyright Claims
First off today, Blake Brittain at Reuters reports that YouTube is accusing plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit of “hiding the ball” by failing to make event a single alleged infringement in their complaint.
The lawsuit was filed last year by Musician Maria Schneider who claimed that YouTube only helps larger copyright holders and deliberately interferes with smaller ones like her. She is seeking class action status for the lawsuit.
However, according to YouTube, the complaint has failed to identify any specific instances of infringement and that the case should be dismissed. They accuse the plaintiffs of attempting to “bob and weave” over the past 18 months rather than file a functioning pleading in the case.
2: Hosting Company Defeats Filmmakers’ “VPN Piracy” Lawsuit in Court
Next up today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that the hosting company Quadranet has emerged victorious in a case filed by a group of independent filmmakers that accused it of enabling piracy by playing host to VPN service providers.
The group sued Quadranet over its part in hosting the VPN provider LiquidVPN, which many users engage in piracy through it. However, Quadranet claimed that it was separated by two levels from the alleged piracy. Noting that it leases the servers to LiquidVPN, that in turn leases out the connections to the alleged pirates.
The plaintiffs attempted to argue that Quadranet was profiting from the piracy nonetheless and that they had delayed updating key records to hinder anti-piracy efforts. In the end, the court sided with Quadranet, ruling that it’s paid regardless of the type of content transmitted and, as such, dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice so that it cannot be refiled.
3: H3H3 Announces Lawsuit Against Korean Media Company MBC Over Copyright Strike
Finally today, Aaron Alford at InvenGlobal reports that YouTuber Ethan Klein has said that he intends to file a lawsuit against the Korean media company MBC following MBC’s blocking of a video that was based on Klein’s own content.
Klein runs the popular H3H3 channel and, according to him, the company used a clip of one of his older videos without permission. However, rather than taking copyright action, Klein tried to produce his own video of them watching his content. But when he tried to do that, MBC blocked the upload on copyright grounds.
Klein has been a lightning rod for copyright infringement cases as his reaction channel format has been targeted by other YouTubers and by Triller. However, this time around, Klein is flipping the script and claiming he’ll file the lawsuit. Klein was able to get the video online, but only after trimming out the section at issue.
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