Spotlight on Michael Elkin of Winston & Strawn

When it comes to the question of how far internet companies must go to block user-generated pirated content online, there’s no more high-profile case than Viacom’s $1 billion copyright battle with Google and YouTube. But if Google wins a pending appeal in the Viacom suit, the company is likely to owe a huge debt to a lawyer who’s not even directly involved: Michael Elkin of Winston & Strawn.

Last month, Elkin persuaded a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rule for his client, the beleaguered video hosting company Veoh Networks, in a four-year-old copyright infringement suit brought by UMG Recordings. Like Viacom in the YouTube case, UMG accused Veoh of failing to remove copyrighted videos uploaded by users to its website. The 9th Circuit upheld an earlier ruling for Veoh, concluding that the company was protected by a safe harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that shields internet service providers from liability for storing infringing material uploaded by users. The appellate panel rejected arguments by UMG’s lawyers at Irell & Manella that Veoh didn’t do enough to police its site despite knowledge that infringing material was present. (Our colleagues at The Recorder have more on the decision.)