Musician Maria Schneider’s class action lawsuit against YouTube for copyright infringement is heading to jury trial next month. The lawsuit claims that smaller artists are denied access to YouTube’s anti-piracy tools while alleged infringers benefit from Content ID matches within the YouTube system. The trial will take place in San Francisco, and YouTube will defend itself with its safe harbor provisions under the DMCA, through fair use, express licenses, and time-barred claims. The plaintiffs are seeking $750 to $150,000 per infringed work and, if successful, they will seek orders preventing YouTube from withholding any known content match over 10 seconds in length and directing YouTube to provide all matches over 10 seconds to any pre-existing or subsequently uploaded video.
