Glenn Peterson, Attorney, Opines on Recent YouTube Copyright Case

PHILADELPHIA, PA, June 26, 2013

Glenn Peterson attorney, is a legal professional who specializes in copyright cases. As such, he was particularly interested in the denial of class action status to video copyright owners with regard to the posting of their work on the popular media website YouTube without their permission. An article published by arstechnica.com explains the case, which Peterson further breaks down in a statement to the press (listed below).

"Judge Stanton really got this right with respect to the class certification issues," comments Glenn Peterson, attorney. "Much class litigation is justified by an economic need to combine cases whose costs would prevent individual litigation. A good example of this would be actions involving improper bank card service charges. The service charges may amount to only a few dollars per individual account, and perhaps even pennies instead of dollars. In such instances, it is doubtful that individual litigants would bother suing over damages so small. But as a class, similarly situated plaintiffs aggregate their claims--then the damages are measured in seven or eight figures instead of fractions of a dollar."

Peterson goes on to highlight the differences between service charge cases and copyright infringement claims: "But excessive bank charges share the exact same analytics when it comes to liability and damages. That is almost never true with copyright infringement claims. There are simply too many variables in play--and those include defenses against a claim of infringement, such as 'fair use' and 'implied license.' In an individual infringement trial, the case in chief may take less than a day to present, but it is common for the presentation of defenses to take several days. And defenses are typically extremely unique to each defendant and often to each act of infringement claimed. This uniqueness does not harmonize well with the requirements of class certification. And, as Judge Stanton noted, copyright law also provides for statutory damages, which helps give litigation value to each individual case, thereby establishing more individual incentive to sue for infringement. Accordingly, it is relatively easy to see why the plaintiffs' efforts to attain class standing failed. But given the high stakes implicated by the class they proposed, it is also easy to see why they tried."

Ultimately, copyright infringement cases are too unique to be approached in the class action environment. According to the article, though, the individuals involved in the YouTube cases are going to explore other legal options.

ABOUT:

Glenn Peterson attorney, is a legal professional who specializes in business litigation, intellectual property, franchise, trademark, copyright, and business torts cases. Peterson earned his law degree at Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from the U.C.L.A., where he served as an editorial cartoonist to the Daily Bruin and other campus newspapers. In addition to his daily professional activities, Peterson is an accomplished writer and speaker who has held membership in numerous professional associations and organizations. He manages a boutique law firm in Sacramento.