Viacom vs. YouTube Billion-Dollar Lawsuit Back from the Dead

The "billion dollar" lawsuit that Viacom filed against YouTube five years ago is back from the dead. It was completely struck down by a district court in 2010 which, in a summary judgment, declared YouTube protected by the DMCA safe-harbor provisions.

Viacom couldn't let it go, obviously, and appealed the decision. Now the appeal court mostly upheld the original decision, despite wishful thinking on the part of the old media, saying that there is nothing to show that YouTube violated the law.

However, it did overturn parts of the lower court decision and send the case back to a district court to settle some of the matters. 

Essentially, the appeal court argued that YouTube could still be found liable, but that Viacom would have to provide actual evidence of YouTube having actual knowledge of specific videos that were infringing and not doing anything to stop it, a tall order.

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