Google Wins! Two Lessons for Legal Researchers from Viacom v. YouTube

The next time you ask yourself why all this fuss about legislative history, take a look at the significance of Congressional reports in determining legislative intent of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S. C. 512) to the outcome of yesterday’s Viacom v. YouTube decision.   YouTube (Google)’s defense to Viacom’s copyright infringement claims rested on the “safe harbor” (sec. 512 (c),(m), and (n))  provisions of the DMCA, and the opinion quotes extensively from the Senate Committee on the  Judiciary Report, S.Rep. No. 105-90 (1998) and the House Committee on Commerce Report  H.R. Rep. No. 105-551, pt. 2 (1998) discussing the intent of that section.

Lesson 1: Legislative history research skills and resources are important!  See our  Legislative History Research Guide for an eye-opening guide to what’s out there.

Lesson 2: The opinion references several emails generated by the parties which made their way into the evidence.  Enough said