Video sharing website sues Universal - premptive strike
After months of hearing about Universal Music Group’s displeasure, DivX yesterday filed a preemptive federal lawsuit of its own that asks a judge to exorcise the “specter of litigation” currently haunting DivX.
At issue is DivX’s Stage6 video hosting service, which is a bit like YouTube but requires the DivX codec instead of Flash. According to a copy of the complaint seen by Ars, Universal has told DivX that the site is “knowingly involved in the infringement of UMG’s copyrighted materials, and exploits that widespread infringement for its own commercial gain.” In response, DivX points out the obvious: it complies with the DMCA and Universal has an easy method to request the takedown of any music video that infringes its copyrights.
According to DivX, Universal has been not interested in supplying actual DMCA takedown notices and instead “has chosen to posture and threaten DivX in the hopes of extracting an unwarranted windfall.”
Both companies believe that the other one wants an “unwarranted windfall,” and it looks like a judge will now step in and settle the matter. According to DivX, it has complied with every legitimate DMCA takedown request that it has received, and it goes even further than the law requires by using file hashes to block repeated uploads of the infringing content. Assuming this is true, Universal would not seem to have a case, which may be why the company has not yet brought an infringement lawsuit against DivX.
via ars technica