A little less than a month ago, Veoh preemptively sued Universal Music Group; the video-sharing site claimed it was receiving “unreasonable threats.” That lawsuit seems to have little effect, however, and Universal is now suing back.
As you might have guessed (or remembered from our previous coverage), the new suit relates to copyright infringement. “Veoh follows in the ignominious footsteps of other recent mass infringers such as Napster,” stated Universal in its legal complaint. “Veoh’s rampant infringement will not stop until Veoh, and those who own, control, and run it, are enjoined and held financially responsible.”
Those aren’t the sorts of words that any site wants to hear from a corporation as powerful as Universal. Bloomberg’s Edvard Pettersson pointed out that Veoh has some strong supporters, including Time Warner and Michael Eisner (as well as Tom Freston), but still . . .
Veoh’s doing its best not to blink, though. CEO Steve Mitgang even issued a statement to Wired’s David Kravets that appears to call Universal “ignorant.” “UMG’s action is not surprising and reflects their limited understanding of Veoh and of the online video space as a whole,” he wrote.
It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out. Following a similar suit, Warner Music Group and Imeem somehow managed to resolve their differences and form a partnership, but on the other end of the spectrum, Bolt.com recently dropped dead.
