In this week's post, we see that YouTube faces another lawsuit from the music industry. This time a class action threatens YouTube with complaints of massive copyright violations from its content ID system. 

Plus, while both litigation and arbitration proceedings are different ways to settle business disputes, the use of arbitration provisions in agreements could prove to help resolving disputes in a less expensive and efficient manner.

YouTube Sued Over Use of Content ID System

YouTube finds itself in the middle of another big lawsuit as a class action lawsuit was recently filed in California by a group of music artists that include Grammy winners.  Maria Schneider is the named plaintiff on a class action filed against the technology giant’s management of its Content ID system.   

Content ID refers to a copyright infringement takedown system that is relatively automated that allows the owners of copyrighted works to monetize content that the system finds in other works as opposed to straight out have the content removed.  Using an automated system, a programmed bot skims other platforms for data and compares it to copyrighted data in its database to determine whether the protected work is being used in third-party content.  

In the copyright suit against YouTube, Plaintiffs allege that the issue is the fact that the Content ID system favors more well-known artists.  And as such, not only are the lesser known artists unable to capitalize and monetize their content in the same way, but they also have the added onus of having to police their own content and file takedowns in the traditional way of sending out multiple notices. 

Read the full article here.

Arbitration Proceedings: The Advantages and Disadvantages of Arbitration

Both litigation and arbitration are methods of addressing disputes and each have their pros and cons. The choice of which avenue to take will depend on the given dispute. This article explains arbitration options in agreements and the potential advantages of them.

Arbitration is a private process that addresses a complaint. In the U.S., the default process for disputes is for our courts to hear and redress a complaint—also referred to as litigation. Over centuries, the judicial system developed several requirements and mechanisms to protect those involved and to resolve a complaint—such as institutional bodies, procedural requirements, discovery tools, evidentiary standards, factual decisionmakers, legal conclusions, remedial mechanisms, and appellate reviews. 

The primary alternative to litigation is an arbitration proceeding. This process involves a contractual agreement between parties to give up their default right to have our courts resolve a dispute and to select a different process and institution that will resolve the dispute. Arbitration is the privatized version of public litigation. In fact, courts also order parties to mediation (a form of arbitration) before proceeding to trial.

Read the full article here.

Click to read the previous Weekly IP Buzz on Thriving Attorney.

For more posts, see our Intellectual Property Law Blog.

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In addition to Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas. Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer.