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A Tennesee-based music publishing company that owns the copyrights to 14 No. 1 hit singles, including songs by Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and other country artists, filed a class action lawsuit against YouTube on Thursday, Google Watch has learned.
The company, Cal IV Entertainment, alleged that YouTube hosts more than 60 of tha company’s copyrighted songs and accuses YouTube of direct, inducement, vicarious and contributory copyright infringement.
As with a similar lawsuit recently filed against YouTube by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, Cal IV argues that even though YouTube complies with the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) by removing videos quickly after being notified, the site does nothing to dissuade repeat infringement.
“YouTube has failed to adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for the termination of repeat-infringing YouTube subscribers and account holders,” the complaint reads. “YouTube also fails to monitor works it previously [sic] been notificed are being infringed.”
The lawsuit comes on the heels of similar lawsuits against the vidshare site from the English Premier Soccer League and bluegrass musician David Grisman.
Cal IV’s complaint describes in detail the difficulty of both finding infringing works on YouTube and keeping them off the site once they’ve been removed. Because users are able to tag and describe videos in random fashion, the complaint says, Cal IV is unable to find and request removal of all of its works.
The complaint also alleges that, even though Cal IV enrolled in YouTube’s Content Verification Program, which was ostensibly supposed to curtail future uploads of Cal IV’s copyrighted material, the company continues to find its copyrighted material on the site on a daily basis.