Google, Others Contest Copyright Warnings from the Wall Street Journal reports the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which includes Google and Microsoft, are filing a complaint with the FCC about how some content companies are taking their copyright warnings a bit too far.

The CCIA would like the FCC to require these content companies, including sports leagues, movie publishers, book publishers and more, to stop using wording the copyright warnings in an obscure and unclear manner.

Sports leagues accused of deceptive warnings from News.com adds a statement from the CCIA:

“These warnings intimidate average people and hinder free expression,” the CCIA in a statement. “They depict as illegal many legitimate and beneficial uses made possible by the high-tech industry, and cast a pall over the high-tech marketplace…These ubiquitous statements often include gross misrepresentations of federal law and characterize as unlawful acts that are explicitly permitted by law.”

The decisions made by the FCC on these issues may have a major impact on YouTube and their legal battles.

Related Topics: Google: Legal | Legal: Copyright

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz