Overview
In a summary judgment ruling dated yesterday, Judge Abrams granted in part and denied in part cross-motions for summary judgment in a copyright challenge relating to material posted to the video sharing site Vimeo. She concluded that there were fact issues as to whether Vimeo could invoke the safe harbor protections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) with respect to fifty-five copyrighted videos because Vimeo’s own employees “provided comments or ‘liked’ twenty-six of the fifty-five videos, placed two on channels, ‘whitelisted’ twenty and ‘buried’ four.” Separately, Judge Abrams granted the plaintiffs summary judgment with respect to all videos that predate the 1972 Copyright Act. She concluded, quoting a December 2011 report from the Copyright Office, that the DMCA does not address pre-1972 recordings and that, “it is for Congress, not the courts, to extend the Copyright Act to pre-1972 sound recordings, both with respect to the rights granted under the Act and the limitations on those rights.” In a footnote, Judge Abrams noted that Judge Pauley had ruled to the contrary, albeit before the having the benefit of the Copyright Office’s report.
