Grammy award-winning composer-performer Maria Schneider has filed a class-action lawsuit against YouTube and parent companies Google and Alphabet. The lawsuit is brought on behalf of independent rights holders that do not have access to the Content ID system (most of us).  As the complaint states:

Defendants Alphabet, Google, and YouTube reap billions of dollars annually from the online hosting of videos, including millions of works that infringe on the exclusive copyrights of Plaintiffs and the Class. Defendants permit and facilitate this infringement because it furthers their growth and revenue strategies and because they have determined that Plaintiffs and the Class— unlike YouTube’s preferred Content ID partners—lack the resources and leverage necessary to combat copyright infringement on the scale at which it is perpetuated on YouTube.

YouTube has consistently claimed that it protected by the DMCA safe harbor against copyright infringement lawsuits.  The complaint argues that Youtube has behaved in a manner that disqualifies the company from seeking DMCA safe harbor protection. We look forward to this playing out in court!

Read the complaint below:

Click to access maria-schneider-class-action-gov.uscourts.cand_.361906.1.0.pdf