Date of Award
Spring 2020
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science (BS)
Advisor(s)
Mark Conrad
Abstract
The goal of this thesis is to determine whether the current implementation of YouTube’s Content ID system fulfills the legal obligations of third-party service providers to qualify for safe harbor protections under Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) and whether the enforcement of this section in court cases such as Viacom International, Inc. v. YouTube, Inc. (2012) and Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. (2015) reveals the need for changes in the copyright system to better balance the interests of copyright owners and content creators who wish to use copyrighted material under “fair use” doctrine. It also seeks to answer whether potential changes to the current system could be implemented through self-regulation from third-party service providers and copyright owners with systems such as YouTube’s Content ID or whether the statutes themselves need to be updated to reflect the changes to the online landscape since 1998. The first section of the thesis is an introduction to the prevalence of YouTube as a video sharing platform and an overview of the Content ID system and its potential drawbacks. The second section provides a review of the relevant statutory law and case law, in order to more clearly define the legal background for the Content ID system. The third section examines academic literature that has been written about YouTube’s Content ID system or the relevant statutes and court rulings in order to assess the pros and cons of the law and the current implementation of YouTube’s system. The fourth section includes some potential amendments that could be added to the law in order to address the issues demonstrated in the third section and the potential effects such amendments may cause for third-party service providers like YouTube. The fifth and final section restates the most important points that the other sections addressed and provides a conclusion about whether Content ID is legal and whether the laws underpinning its existence should be updated to reflect the new concerns brought about by the internet today
Recommended Citation
Krizan III, Kenneth, "The Legality of YouTube's Content ID System: Copyright Protection and Fair Use in the Digital Age" (2020). Gabelli School of Business Honors Thesis Collection. 78.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/gabelli_thesis/78
