14 DAY TRIAL // Since its acquisition in October 2006, YouTube was continuously kept in the spotlights due to numerous copyright infringement complaints made by other media companies on the Internet. Today, The New York Times reports that several Japanese firms are again criticizing the video sharing platform because YouTube doesn't remove some copyright infringement clips published on its page. It seems that a Japanese television and several music and film firms informed Google about the availability of several cartoons and other videos published on YouTube that are actually infringing their copyright; however, the Mountain View company didn't remove them.
''YouTube has to stop how it runs its site and get rid of the illegal clips. We want them to reset the service,'' composer Hideki Matsutake said for the New York Times. ''There is no middle ground. We demand that all copyrighted material be removed immediately.''
As you know, YouTube is protected by the DMCA act that stated the online video sharing platform cannot be accused for copyright infringement since most of its content is provided by the Internet users. However, an impressive number of companies already sued Google, requiring huge amounts of money in damages. Since it was acquired by the search giant, it was rumored that YouTube prepares a special filter able to stop all these lawsuits but until now, no function has been released.
"What's important to us is what YouTube can do immediately. We have no guarantee whether the new technology will even work,'' said Mizuo Sugawara of the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers, for the same source.
Some time ago, the media giant Viacom filed a complaint against Google, accusing the Mountain View company for copyright infringement. MTV's owner also demanded $1 billion in damages even if it first demanded the removal of 100.000 clips from the official page of YouTube.