The Copyright Conundrum in Modern Technology Copyright Issues Regarding Internet Service Providers and Live Spectator Events
John Leppler · Digital Commons-DePaul (DePaul University) · 2015
Viacom without permission.5 In 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Youtube's owner Google Inc.'s motion for summary judgment against Viacom.6 Viacom then appealed the summary judgment ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and on April 18, 2013, the Second Circuit's Judge Stanton again granted summary judgment in favor of Google Inc. 7 Judge Stanton ultimately upheld that "low threshold" ISPs must meet for protection under the DMCA's "safe harbor" provisions from copyright infringement.8 Viacom has appealed the Second Circuit's decision and the case is currently pending.9 Copyright challenges by holders against ISPs are mainly for music and entertainment.' 0 There are two grounds that live spectator sports events have yet to be challenged on."First, a court has yet to determine whether a live spectator sports event is copyrightable by a stadium, arena, or teams.12 Second, a court has yet to distinguish what activities are within the scope of what "reasonably occurs" during a live sports event.13 "Facts" and "news" are non-copyrightable under the First Amendment, so distinguishing these occurrences from "sports events related activates" are important for copyright distinction.14 Part II of this article summarizes the 1998 DMCA and its "safe harbor" provisions in relation to ISPs.Further, this section will discuss recent case law that demonstrates the "low threshold" that ISPs must meet to be granted protection through the DMCA "safe harbor" provisions. 5.