February 12, 2007
By Nicholas Carlson
Google's YouTube and a company called Live Digital will offer no refuge to users who uploaded pirated copies of Fox Television's "24" and "The Simpsons" onto their video platforms.
In an e-mail to internetnews.com, a 20th Century Fox Television spokesperson said that Google and Live Digital complied with subpoenas issued by the U.S. District Court in Northern California and disclosed to Fox the identities of two individuals who illegally uploaded entire episodes of "24" prior to its broadcast and DVD release.
According to copies of the subpoena applications, Fox found this season's first four episodes of "24" on LiveDigital and YouTube on Jan. 8, a full week before they were to air for the first time in the U.S.
Fox said a YouTube user who goes by the handle "ECOTtotal" uploaded 12 episodes of the popular animated show "The Simpsons." The LiveDigital user's display name was "Jorge Romero."
"We intend to use the information provided to pursue all available legal remedies against those who infringed our copyrights," 20th Century Fox Television Vice President of Media Relations Chris Alexander told internetnews.com.
The U.S. District Court first instructed Google and Live Digital to produce identifying information in identical subpoenas, pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, issued Jan. 24 after L.A. law firm Loeb & Loeb filed them for Fox on Jan. 18.
Since Google purchased YouTube for $1.56 billion last fall, the company has been besieged by similar complaints of copyright infringement.
Last week, for example, media giant Viacom demanded YouTube take down 100,000 clips, including content from MTV, Comedy Central and other networks.
Viacom said "it has become clear that YouTube is unwilling to come to a fair market agreement" on content distribution.
Some media companies have been more congenial. According to a Google spokesperson, of the big four music labels, only EMI is yet to sign a revenue-sharing deal with Google.
And today, Digital Music Group announced it entered into an agreement with Google to make more than 4,000 hours of video content and approximately 40,000 music recordings available to the YouTube community.
DMGI currently owns or controls the digital distribution rights to classic television episodes of "Gumby," "I Spy," "My Favorite Martian," "Peter Gunn" and more.
