Veoh Asks for Court Protection from Universal Suit

Last month, I voiced my concerns about ex-Yahoo exec Steve Mitgang taking over as CEO of Veoh, seeing as Veoh’s so innovative and Yahoo’s so bleh. Mr. Mitgang’s done something to ease those concerns a bit: proactively defending Veoh’s status as a DMCA safe harbor. He’s asking a court to prevent Universal from suing them.

Apparently, Universal’s been threatening Veoh for months, making allegations of infringement instead of actually filing the takedown notices required by law. As a Veoh user myself, I can tell you Veoh abides by DMCA takedown notices, all the way down to deleting local files downloaded through their Veoh TV client. Their takedown process is thorough almost to the point of invasion.

I have to admit, I didn’t expect such a bold move from a Yahoo alumnus. Old media attitudes prevalent at Yahoo would make me think they’d bend over backwards to satisfy old media copyright trolls. Nevertheless, it’s about time someone took the offensive in forcing arrogant big media conglomerates to abide by the very same law they use to bully people.