By Blake Brittain
(Reuters) – Alphabet’s YouTube and Grammy-winning composer Maria Schneider said in a court filing on Sunday that they agreed to dismiss Schneider’s San Francisco federal lawsuit accusing the video-sharing site of enabling the piracy of her works.
A trial in the copyright infringement case had been set to begin on Monday. YouTube and Schneider agreed to end the case with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled.
An Alphabet spokesperson on Monday declined to comment on the filing. Attorneys for Schneider did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Schneider sued YouTube in 2020 on behalf of a proposed class of small or “ordinary” copyright owners, arguing that the platform protects major players like music labels and movie studios from infringers but allows pirated content from others in order to draw in users.
The complaint said big companies have access to YouTube’s advanced Content ID software to scan for and automatically block infringing content, while individual creators are left “out in the cold.”
YouTube denied the allegations and said it goes “above and beyond” to protect copyrights.
In a win for YouTube, U.S. District Judge James Donato last month refused to certify the lawsuit as a class action.
The case is Schneider v. YouTube LLC, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 3:20-cv-04423.
For Schneider: Joshua Schiller and Philip Korologos of Boies Schiller Flexner, George Zelcs and Stephen Tillery of Korein Tillery
For YouTube: David Kramer of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Read more:
YouTube must face artists’ lawsuit over copyright protections
YouTube says creators are ‘hiding the ball’ with copyright claims
(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)
