July 1, 2006 | The Biz

Titan sues Veoh

Have you been wondering why the very popular Veoh video-sharing site suddenly dropped porn from its menu? It turns out that, after having rankled dozens of porn companies by continually posting stolen adult video for free mass consumption, Veoh was slammed with a lawsuit by none other than Titan Media.

The complaint, filed in a California U.S. District Court, alleges that Veoh should be held responsible for copyright infringement because it allowed videos owned by Titan to be accessed through Veoh without Titan's permission.

Some video sharing services, including YouTube (which has also banned adult content), don't review videos that are posted by members before making them available on their sites. Instead they rely on content owners and users to inform them if  videos are posted without the copyright holders' permission. Following a procedure outlined in the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, videos are removed after the site is given formal notification by the copyright owner.

This case could test the basic legal assumptions that have allowed video-sharing sites to bloom over the past year. Such sites have until now had the luxury of claiming ignorance of any copyright infringement -- even when it is obvious -- until they are informed by the copyright holder that an infringement has occurred. If Titan wins this suit, more onus could be placed upon video sharing sites to make a reasonable effort to filter out copyrighted materials.

• Veoh faces copyright suit, a test of Web video [Wall Street Journal]