Andre Yoskowitz
24 Jun 2009 3:32
The French independent labels collecting society SPPF has this week filed a lawsuit against giant video sharing site YouTube, alleging copyright infringement.
The SPPF says that over 100 music videos from its artist catalog are available via the service in some form, and the group wants €10 million in damages.
YouTube refuted the charges however, adding that the "SPPF has not signed up to its Content ID technical measures to identify any infringement."
"We can't discuss a pending case but bear in mind that YouTube offers professional content creators and producers powerful and free tools to protect, promote and monetize their content by using Content ID," says Google. "Many indies as well as major music companies are using these tools to protect their content in France. The protection of copyrights is best achieved by joint efforts between creators and online platforms, not by lengthy and costly lawsuits. SPPF have not used Content ID to protect their content on the platform so far, although several independent labels do."