user: News: 4:51 p.m. | Updated A federal appeals court on Thursday reversed a lower court’s decision to throw out a $1 billion lawsuit that was filed against YouTube by Viacom and other media companies five years ago.

The copyright infringement suit, which has become a symbol of the clash between entrenched media companies and the upstarts that are now competing with them, sought damages for clips from shows that had been uploaded by users to YouTube.

A federal judge sided with YouTube in 2010, saying the company was shielded from Viacom’s copyright claims by “safe harbor” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or D.M.C.A . Viacom subsequently appealed.

On Thursday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the original ruling, stating that “a reasonable jury could conclude that YouTube had knowledge or awareness” of copyright infringement “at least with respect to a handful of specific clips.”

It said a lower court should review whether YouTube, in its nascent state as a video Web portal, had been willfully blind to the fact that some of its users were uploading copyrighted videos. Lawyers and analysts say the twists and turns in the lawsuit have implications for the D.M.C.A., which gives some protections to Web site operators. In a statement on Thursday, YouTube said that “the Second Circuit has upheld the longstanding interpretation of the D.M.C.A. and rejected Viacom’s reading of the law.”

“All that is left of the Viacom lawsuit that began as a wholesale attack on YouTube is a dispute over a tiny percentage of videos long ago removed from YouTube,” the statement continued. “Nothing in this decision impacts the way YouTube is operating. YouTube will continue to be a vibrant forum for free expression around the world.”

Viacom, however, said it was pleased by the ruling, writing, “The court delivered a definitive, common sense message – intentionally ignoring theft is not protected by the law.”

YouTube has come a long way since the original lawsuit was filed. It is now a hub for many professionally produced video from Viacom and other media companies. On Wednesday, in fact, a deal was announced between YouTube and Viacom’s Paramount Pictures unit that will let users rent some Paramount movies on the Web site. Paramount already had similar deals with other sites.

Malik Ducard, the director of content partnerships for YouTube, praised Paramount in a statement, saying, “Paramount Pictures is one of the biggest movie studios on the planet. We’re thrilled to bring nearly 500 of their films to movie fans in the U.S. and Canada on YouTube and Google Play.”

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

An earlier version of this post misstated the timing of the appellate court ruling and of a Paramount-YouTube deal. The court ruling was Thursday, not Wednesday; the Paramount deal was announced Wednesday, not Tuesday.

Title: Appeals Court Revives Viacom Suit Against YouTube


News: NEW YORK | Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:20pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve meets this week, faced with a darkening U.S. economic backdrop, and is expected to focus on how best to use the policy arsenal at its disposal with its most ambitious emergency lending program to date about to launched.

Economists expect the U.S. central bank to hold its target range for the benchmark overnight federal funds rate steady at zero to 0.25 percent, while indicating it will keep rates low for some time. Some expect the Fed to stress that it will ramp up the use of its balance sheet to support key credit markets.

As the meeting starts on Tuesday, the New York Federal Reserve Bank will begin accepting applications for the first batch of loans under the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), which seeks to ease consumer and small business lending.

The program will start at an initial $200 billion, but the Fed has said it could be expanded to up to $1 trillion.

Markets will scour the Fed's post-meeting statement for any clues as to how the central bank may expand its credit-easing policies, including any further hints on whether it might be moving toward -- or away from -- buying long-term U.S. government debt.

The Fed is expected to issue its policy statement around 2:15 p.m. EDT on Wednesday.

Following are some of the factors policy-makers are considering:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Sunday that the United States should start recovering from recession next year if there is political will to finish the costly rescue of its shattered banking system.

The following are some recent data points on the economy:

-- The U.S. unemployment rate rose to a 25-year high of 8.1 percent in February as employers, buckling under the strain of a severe recession, axed 651,000 jobs.

-- The economy suffered its deepest contraction since early 1982 in the fourth quarter, shrinking at a much worse-than-expected 6.2 percent annual rate as exports plunged and consumers slashed spending.

-- U.S. consumer sentiment as measured by the Reuters/University of Michigan index unexpectedly rose to 56.6 in early March from a reading of 56.3 in late February.

-- Since the Fed's last meeting in January, the U.S. has stepped in with a revamped rescue for insurer American International Group. As part of that rescue, the Federal Reserve took a preferred interest in two AIG units.

-- Executives from Citigroup (C.N), Bank of America (BAC.N) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) said last week their banks had been profitable for the first two months of the year.

-- The first applications for loans under the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility are due this week, and markets will be eager for more details on how this facility could be expanded. The Fed has said the program, aimed at spurring consumer and small business lending, could expand to include other asset classes such as commercial mortgage-backed securities.

-- The Fed could also announce an expansion to its existing $100 billion agency debt and $500 billion mortgage-backed securities purchase programs. The Fed has bought about $46.5 billion of agency debt and approximately $217 billion of agency MBS so far.

-- The Fed has said buying U.S. government bonds could also be an option, though some policy-makers have sounded cool to the idea in recent weeks. Market participants will be eager for any further clues on whether the Fed will step in as a buyer.

(Reporting by Kristina Cooke; editing by Gary Crosse)

Title:

assistant: What the Fed's considering at this week's meeting