ThisCloud.net

By Eriq Gardner

EXCLUSIVE: Veoh has a warning for justices at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who will consider overturning a lower court’s ruling in Universal Music Group’s big copyright infringement case.

“UMG’s interpretation of the law would, if applied, wreak havoc on a variety of new media portals like Yahoo!, Google and Facebook,” writes Veoh’s attorney Erin Ranahan in just-submitted written arguments.

Earlier this year, Veoh won a huge victory against UMG, which argued that Veoh should be held legally responsible for copyrighted material posted by users. A district court accepted Veoh’s arguments that the onus was on UMG to identify infringing material, and absent such notice, Veoh was protected from claims by the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA.

The triumph foreshadowed Google’s victory against claims by Viacom concerning copyright infringing material on YouTube. In fact, the judge in that case directly referenced the Veoh decision.

Viacom has promised an appeal, but before that happens, UMG gets its turn.