Maria Schneider’s YouTube Content ID lawsuit ends in Dismissal

What began as an important battle to give independent artists more control over their content on YouTube has ended in an 11th-hour dismissal.

Three years ago, independent musician Maria Schneider, Uniglobe Entertainment, and AST Publishing filed what they hoped would become a class action lawsuit. At the core of their claim was that YouTube, which the suit called a “hotbed of piracy,” offers tools like Content ID to record labels but does not allow “ordinary” copyright owners to use them.

But in May, a judge denied the case class-action status stating that infringement claims against YouTube required “highly individualized inquiries into the merits,” including whether or not YouTube had a valid license to the tracks involved.

That led Schenieder’s lawyers to negotiate with YouTube. They had apparently reached an agreement to significantly narrow the issues remaining to be tried before the jury, but last Friday, according to the plaintiffs, YouTube reversed course.

So on Sunday, Schneider effectively ended the case entirely with this motion:

“Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(ii), Plaintiffs Maria Schneider, Uniglobe Entertainment, LLC, and AST Publishing, LTD, and Defendants YouTube, LLC and Google LLC, hereby stipulate to the dismissal of the action.”

“All claims that Plaintiffs raised or could have raised in this action are dismissed WITH PREJUDICE. Each Party will bear its own costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees.”

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.