Veoh counter-sues before getting sued

Filed in archive Internet TV on August 16, 2007

Why even wait for the lawsuit? Let's move now!

You just have to respect this: last week, Veoh pre-emptively sued Universal Music Group, asking a federal judge to prevent the giant music label from filing its own copyright infringement action.

Basically, they are asking a judge to declare that the company has no liability to Universal even if individuals upload videos to the Veoh site that may contain music from Universal artists. They argued that it is entitled to protection under the "safe harbor" provision of U.S. copyright law because it doesn't encourage its users to infringe copyrights and goes beyond current legal requirements to investigate and remove infringing material when notified to do so.

From what I understand, Universal told Veoh back in July that they might sue them. This is the same Universal that struck a licensing deal with YouTube after threatening to sue them.