The Motion Picture Association of America has a well-earned reputation for, shall we say, “moulding” its facts. But with its latest lawsuit against Hotfile, the group has apparently gone too far for Google’s tastes. The search giant has just filed an Amicus brief objecting to the MPAA’s “distortion” of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
An Amicus brief is a court document filed by a third party in a case — neither the plaintiff nor defendant — that volunteers information that may be relevant to the proceedings and would not have been discovered otherwise. In this case, Google’s brief provided a legal opinion that the MPAA is full of crap in regards to the Safe Harbor provisions.
“Google is particularly concerned by some of the arguments offered by the plaintiffs, which distort the meaning of the statute and, if accepted, would unduly narrow the important protections those provisions give online service providers,” the company wrote.
Google pointed to its own case against Viacom a few years back in which the search company successfully used the provisions as a defence. While the case has already been in progress for over a year, the MPAA’s sudden request for a summary judgement has apparently spurred Google to action. Looks like the MPAA’s ploy to quietly cajole its lawsuit to fruition backfired. [Scribd, Amicus Curiae Wiki via Electronista]
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