• CNET News.com, Monday, October 23, 2006 11:02 AM

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act May shield YouTube from being sued when its users post copyrighted content on its site--provided that YouTube takes it down when flagged. But the law doesn't protect those users who upload copyrighted content.

Consider the many lawsuits doled out by Recording Industry Association of America and most recently, Universal Music Group; content owners can go after individual users who break copyright law on YouTube.

Given that YouTube built its business on letting users upload whatever video content they like, it might not be the smartest move for YouTube to encourage copyright owners to go after its users. But CNET points out that it may come to pass that YouTube has no choice: The newly acquired Google property has every right to hand over information on those who illegally post video clips of movies and TV shows, in order to protect itself from litigation.

In fact, vigilante journalist Robert Tur, who is suing for copyright infringement, was encouraged by YouTube's attorney Francis Pizzulli to pursue litigation against the person who posted videos of his coverage of the 1992 L.A. riots. Pizzulli added that it was his client's policy to provide owners with user identification information after receiving a valid subpoena.

YouTube's end-user licensing agreement says the company will not break the law, and that users should not post copyrighted material to the site, despite the fact that the video site owes much of its fame to ripped-off material.

Read the whole story at CNET News.com »