This article discusses a copyright dispute between Hollywood and the Web, that has hit the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Viacom Inc. seeks to overturn a loss it suffered in June, when U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton found that, under the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), YouTube bore no liability for thousands of videos posted by third parties on its site in alleged infringement of Viacom's copyrights. The outcome of this case set a national precedent regarding the scope of potential liability for nearly every business on the Internet that posts infringing content. The author states that this case has attracted amicus groups on both sides looking to set straight the legal rules for websites displaying copyrighted content, particularly those provided by users. Specifically, both sides want guidance on what constitutes safe harbor under the DMCA, which exempts online service providers from liability. "I think there is a circuit split that's brewing on this particular issue," said Patrick Coyne, partner at Finnegan and chairman of the amicus committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA). The case against YouTube originated in 2007 when Viacom, which owns MTV, Comedy Central, and Paramount Pictures Corp., alleged that the site was deliberately posting copyrighted material to draw users to its site.
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