Capitol Records sue Vimeo over lip-syncing videos

Video streaming website, Vimeo have found themselves going head-to-head with major label Capitol Records over a series of comedy clips posted online.

Capitol have announced that they believe that videos of people lip-syncing to music of their back-catalogue are a breach of copyright and have decided to take legal action against Vimeo for allowing such videos to be uploaded.

Vimeo requested for the case to be tossed, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s “safe harbour” clause, which states that companies like Vimeo cannot be held liable for copyright infringement as long as they remove the breach if asked. This was declined because a number of Vimeo employees commented or ‘liked’ offending videos, which suggests that they knew about them.

The judge wrote that “triable issues exist as to whether Vimeo acquired actual or red flag knowledge of the infringing content in the 55 videos with which Vimeo employees interacted, and summary judgement is denied as to them.”

As FACT note, the lawsuit has been in progress for the last four years and Vimeo has always argued that they have no received takedown requests on any videos. The suit involves songs from artists such as the Beatles, Jay Z and Radiohead.