Last summer’s Viacom v YouTube decision (copy of judgment available here), though currently on appeal, continues to have resonance – particularly for Canadian copyright and entertainment lawyers in light of the fact that Bill C-32 (The Copyright Modernization Act) contains a provision (dubbed, variously, the “YouTube exception”, the “mash-up exception” or the “UGC exception”) which would create an exception to copyright infringement for “Non-Commercial User-generated Content”.
Wendy Serres, writing at IPilogue in To Mix or Not to Mix: Bill C-32 “Mash Up” Provision is Getting Attention, summarizes what recent submissions to the Bill C-32 legislative committee have had to say about the UFC exception.
In User-Generated Content Sites and Section 512 of the US Copyright Act, Jane C. Ginsburg critically assesses the Viacom v YouTube decision, with particular focus on the issue of copyright liability for the entrepreneurs who create and provide access to sites such as YouTube and Facebook – both the very definition of UGC sites.
Stephen Zolf and I spoke in December 2010 about how the Viacom v YouTube decision might be seen to interface with the proposals found in Bill C-32 – our slides can be accessed here.
