YouTube network producers file lawsuits against a music service for copyright trolling.

YouTube producers sue for copyright trolling

February 12, 2015 4:39 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

Machinima and Collective Digital Studio, two YouTube multi-channel networks, filed identical lawsuits in California federal court on Monday against online music service Freeplay.

The suits were filed collectively by Freedman & Taitelman's Bryan Freedman against Freeplay's alleged "copyright trolling." The term has come to reference businesses that make money by claiming, through litigation and otherwise, that content producers and other companies are infringing upon their copyrights. Specifically, the lawsuit claims that Freeplay offers consumers "free" music and encourages purchasers to use the songs in YouTube videos and other online content. When producers do exactly that the music service returns, demanding large licensing fees and threats of legal action.

"This is NOT how a business that wishes to legitimately license and protect its content would behave," read the two complaints. "But Freeplay is not really in the content license business. Freeplay conducts its business in a very different manner — a 'bait and switch' followed by extortion."

The two networks and YouTubers associated with them began to receive monetary demands from TuneSat in October 2014. TuneSat is a third party, allegedly monitoring the web for supposed infringement on behalf of Freeplay. The complaints state that TuneSat and Freeplay are founded and run by a single CEO.

The lawsuit claims that while individual YouTubers may have, the networks themselves never subscribed to Freeplay's service, downloaded their music, or agreed to any of the service's duplicitous terms and conditions.

This story is just one example that illustrates how important it is to understand what you are signing up for when you join a service that deals with copyrighted materials in any capacity. If you use or regularly worth with intellectual property, make sure to consult a business attorney, who can help protect your rights should any problems arise.

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