Google says Universal Music lied about having a "contract to remove any content" on YouTube

This Mega Upload Song saga is nuts! After UMG revealed that it allegedly had a "contract to remove any content it did not like" on YouTube -- even if it did not own the copyright, Google has issued a statement:

Our partners do not have the right to take down videos from YT unless they own the rights to them or they are live performances controlled through exclusive agreements with their artists, which is why we reinstated it [Mega Upload Song].

This is not the first time that UMG has taken down a song on YouTube that it did not own.

From Wired:

YouTube’s statement came a day after Universal Music told a federal judge hearing the case that it had used YouTube’s content filters, known as the Content Management System, to have the video removed shortly after Megaupload had uploaded it. Universal never disclosed to U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken why it had the video removed.

But Universal told Wilken, an Oakland federal judge, that Megaupload is not entitled to monetary damages, (.pdf) even if Universal Music gamed YouTube’s filters.

Universal said Google’s private system doesn’t count as an official takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and thus it was immune from legal liability. It’s a position that Ira Rothken, Megaupload’s attorney, said was preposterous.

Via boing boing / Web Pro News