United States Second Circuit

In a copyright infringement suit against YouTube, the district court's judgment in favor of YouTube is: 1) affirmed in part, where the district court correctly held that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act at 17 U.S.C. section 512(c)(1)(A) requires the defendant's knowledge or awareness of facts or circumstances that indicate specific and identifiable instances of infringement; 2) vacated in part, because a reasonable jury could conclude that YouTube had knowledge or awareness at least with respect to a handful of specific clips; 3) remanded for the district court to consider the application of the willful blindness doctrine; 4) reversed insofar as it required "item-specific" knowledge of infringement in its interpretation of the "right and ability to control" infringing activity under section 512(c)(1)(B); 5) affirmed insofar as it held that three of the challenged YouTube software functions--replication, playback, and the related videos feature--occur "by reason of the storage at the direction of a user" within the meaning of section 512(c)(1); and 6) remanded for further fact-finding regarding a fourth software function, involving the syndication of YouTube videos to third parties.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/05/2012
• Published 04/05/2012

Judges

• Jose A. Cabranes

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Paul M. Smith, Andrew H. Schapiro