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Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

Pretty egregious, and something which one would hope you could sue Google for. In this case aiding in the infringement of Copyright because it is the Content ID system, with a borked refusal policy, that are allowing UMG to pirate the artist's music and to make a profit from it. Not only from the artist but anyone who was paying license fees to the artist are now having their video revenue get hijacked by UMG.

Seems like class action status might be possible.

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> Pretty egregious, and something which one would hope you could sue Google for.

From the facts described, UMG is fraudulently interfering with Google's relationship with a legitimate business partner in order to commit criminal copyright infringement.

Certainly, someone should be prosecuted -- by the DOJ, not just the victim -- but I don't see why Google should be the primary target (if anything, Google should be among the plaintiffs in the civil action.)

That would be an interesting construction. From an engagement perspective it is probably easier to get a lawyer on spec based on class action status but if the DoJ could be brought in it would certainly give us something that the courts might be able to use to clarify automated takedown as it relates to the DMCA.

This really is copyright theft - not what MPAA keeps claiming that pirating a movie is. That's just copryright infringement. Here, UMG is actually stealing the copyright rights of the artists and makes them its own.

sue Google

Sure, if you've got a few hundred thousand dollars, five years, and are OK with being blacklisted from Google during that time.

I agree. This comes up frequently enough that it seems like there could be a legitimate class action of some kind.

Even in the FB post, there's a lot of "me too"'s.

At the very least offer to sit everyone down at a table and talk it out (I'm still partial to the unarmed combat solution, but that's me).

I'd assume that Google/Youtube's TOS include a clause such that any issue you might ever have, can only be resolved by arbitration. Lots of companies are busy making sure that merely using their service means you can't press a class action lawsuit.

Have those ToS-es been tested in court? (Or more relevantly, ask a lawyer who is familiar with the subject. It may be that not everything falls under their forced mandatory arbitration.)

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