{"id":62031,"date":"2022-01-27T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T09:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=62031"},"modified":"2022-01-27T09:00:41","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T09:00:41","slug":"youtube-wants-fraudulent-copyright-claimant-kept-in-class-action-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=62031","title":{"rendered":"YouTube Wants \u2018Fraudulent\u201d Copyright Claimant Kept in Class Action Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sad<\/a>In the hope of accessing YouTube\u2019s Content ID system, in 2020 musician Maria Schneider launched a class action lawsuit that alleged<\/a> mass infringement and serious deficiencies in YouTube\u2019s copyright enforcement measures.<\/p>\n

She did so with the support of a shadowy company called \u2018Pirate Monitor\u2019 but an in-depth investigation by YouTube later revealed that the entity was up to no good. <\/p>\n

In order to build its case against YouTube, Pirate Monitor had uploaded around 2,000 movie clips<\/a> to YouTube and then filed fraudulent takedown notices to have that content removed. It later admitted it didn\u2019t hold the copyrights to the works it asserted in the case.<\/p>\n

YouTube went on to file a counterclaim and named<\/a> Hungarian film director and California resident G\u00e1bor Csup\u00f3 (who previously worked on The Simpsons, Rugrats, Duckman, Stressed Eric, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters) as the person presiding over Pirate Monitor. <\/p>\n

With allegations of fraud threatening to bring the class into disrepute, Pirate Monitor voluntarily dismissed<\/a> its claims against YouTube but the video platform refused to back down, keeping the allegations of a \u201cwide-ranging fraud\u201d in its counterclaim intact.<\/p>\n

In the wake of Pirate Monitor\u2019s withdrawal, Schneider filed a first amended complaint that added two new parties to the action \u2013 Uniglobe Entertainment, LLC and AST Publishing. Yet again (and as it did earlier with Schneider and Pirate Monitor) YouTube pointed out huge deficiencies in the claims of the new companies and in December asked the court to dismiss the entire complaint<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs Want Counterclaim Handed Separately<\/h2>\n

In the meantime, however, Pirate Monitor and its behavior are back at the forefront of the case after the plaintiffs asked the court to sever YouTube\u2019s counterclaim from the case so it can be handled separately. Predictably, YouTube is having none of it. <\/p>\n

In its opposition to the motion to sever, YouTube says that after \u201chandpicking\u201d Pirate Monitor to lead the putative class action based on claims that it was suffering in the same way as other copyright holders around the world, Pirate Monitor was held up as a \u201cperfect example\u201d of a copyright holder wrongly denied access to Content ID. With its \u201cfraudulent\u201d actions showing otherwise, the opposite was evident.<\/p>\n

\u201cPirate Monitor has instead proven to be a perfect example of why YouTube does not \u2014 and cannot \u2014 offer Content ID to everyone,\u201d YouTube\u2019s response reads. \u201cGiving Pirate Monitor the power to control and block videos based on bogus copyright claims like those it asserted here could have visited significant hardship on countless YouTube users.\u201d<\/p>\n

YouTube says that when the plaintiffs could no longer deny Pirate Monitor\u2019s misconduct, the company dismissed its own claims with prejudice. This demonstrates that the plaintiffs only wish to sever YouTube\u2019s counterclaims against Pirate Monitor because its own actions support YouTube\u2019s position that Content ID access will be abused if they allow anyone to use it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is hard to imagine a better embodiment of YouTube\u2019s concerns about Content ID misuse than Pirate Monitor. Its baseless assertion of copyright ownership and its fraudulent infringement claims would, if made through Content ID\u2019s automated machinery, wreak havoc on other users and YouTube itself. As a result, the presentation of YouTube\u2019s counterclaims against Pirate Monitor will confirm the need for Content ID access restrictions and refute Plaintiffs\u2019 charge that the restrictions are intended to enable \u2018copyright piracy\u2019,\u201d YouTube writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiffs chose Pirate Monitor as their standard bearer at the start of this case,\u201d the video platform continues. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey understandably now wish to distance themselves as much as possible. But the overlap between Plaintiffs\u2019 affirmative claims, YouTube\u2019s counterclaims, and Pirate Monitor\u2019s defenses is plain, and no legitimate interests would be served by severing the counterclaims at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYouTube Believes Pirate Monitor Sullys The Case\u201d<\/h2>\n

In their reply in support of their motion to sever, the plaintiffs frame things very differently. They argue that the idea of severance is to promote judicial economy and to avoid prejudice. They note that YouTube is seeking $20,000 in its counterclaim against Pirate Monitor but that has already resulted in \u201csignificant waste and prejudice.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to them, YouTube has already spent in excess of $100,000 in attorney\u2019s fees litigating its counterclaims, an \u201cexponential disparity\u201d that makes a settlement \u201cthe only rational path\u201d to resolve the claims. Indeed, the plaintiffs claim that severance would facilitate such a settlement but they believe YouTube isn\u2019t interested in the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sole justification for this waste is YouTube\u2019s improper desire to distract from the claims brought by Plaintiffs Maria Schneider, Uniglobe Entertainment, and AST Publishing in their pursuit of class-wide relief,\u201d they inform the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the cases are not decoupled, however, YouTube will continue to press the claims against Pirate Monitor for the simple reason that YouTube believes these claims sully the class and will unduly influence the decision-maker \u2014 inappropriate reasons to contest severance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs further state that YouTube is using its counterclaims against Pirate Monitor as a \u201cguilt-by-association weapon to be wielded against Plaintiffs and the putative class,\u201d adding that severance would not prejudice YouTube.<\/p>\n

The related court documents can be found here (1<\/a>,2<\/a> pdf)<\/em><\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

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In the hope of accessing YouTube\u2019s Content ID system, in 2020 musician Maria Schneider launched a class action lawsuit that alleged mass infringement and serious deficiencies in YouTube\u2019s copyright enforcement measures. She did so with the support of a shadowy company called \u2018Pirate Monitor\u2019 but an in-depth investigation by YouTube later revealed that the entity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}