Ilan Barzilay Quoted in Top Tech News, Yahoo! News, and others
“Google Says Viacom Illegally Uploaded YouTube Videos”

Ilan Barzilay was quoted in the article, “Google Says Viacom Illegally Uploaded YouTube Videos,” published March 18, 2010 by the Newsfactor.com Web sites, including Top Tech News and picked-up by Yahoo! News. The article reports on an escalating legal battle concerning copyright infringement between Viacom and Google’s YouTube service.

According to Ilan, determining whether YouTube is a hands-off provider is critical to fending off charges of copyright infringement. "The copyright laws allow Internet service providers and similar entities a 'safe harbor' for infringement allegations…. If the provider doesn't knowingly allow or assist acts of infringement, it won't be held liable for the acts of its users," he said. The safe harbor provision disappears and the provider is held liable, however, if employees encourage or are aware of any copyright infringement.

According to the article, one of YouTube’s cofounders asked another to stop soliciting and posting copyrighted videos. Ilan observed, “Even though the videos weren't Viacom videos, Viacom is using them to try to show that YouTube wasn't a hands-off provider who didn't know about the infringement, but was actually encouraging the infringement, and therefore can't use the safe harbor and should be liable for the infringement that takes place on its site." He concluded that "If Viacom succeeds in removing the safe harbor, YouTube is in trouble because it now could be liable for millions of infringing videos -- which would be bad for them."