• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, May 11, 2010

A coalition of content owners and others including the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, NBC Universal and the Association of American Publishers weighed in on Viacom's behalf in its copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube.

The groups argue in a friend-of-the-court brief that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's safe harbor protections don't protect YouTube for infringement in this case.

The safe harbor provisions generally immunize sites from copyright liability for material uploaded by users, provided the sites remove infringing content upon request. But the organizations who are siding with Viacom say those safe harbors "do not immunize from liability enterprises predicated on the inducement of, or knowing contribution to, copyright infringement, or those that decline to exercise the right and ability to control infringing activity from which they directly benefit financially."

The Washington Legal Foundation also filed a friend-of-the-court brief on Viacom's behalf.

Last month, a coalition of digital rights groups including the American Library Association, Center for Democracy & Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, NetCoalition (which includes Amazon, eBay and Yahoo) argued that YouTube is protected by the DMCA's safe harbors.