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ARTICLE · 23 JANUARY 2026

YouTube, Safe-Harbors, and the Future of Platform Liability

Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP
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What Copyright Owners and Creative Companies Need to Know About the Eleventh Circuit's Athos Overseas v. YouTube Decision, and How the Supreme Court's Cox Communications Case Could Shift the Ground...

United StatesIntellectual Property
Robert Maslonka
Robert Maslonka
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What Copyright Owners and Creative Companies Need to Know About the Eleventh Circuit's Athos Overseas v. YouTube Decision, and How the Supreme Court's Cox Communications Case Could Shift the Ground

The Eleventh Circuit's decision inAthos Overseas Ltd. Corp. v. YouTube, Inc.is the most recent consequential case interpreting the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") safe‑harbor provisions.

The DMCA is a 1998 U.S. law that updated copyright rules for the internet age and famously created a notice‑and‑takedown system while giving internet service providers and platforms safe‑harbor protections when users post infringing content.

For creative‑industry clients, the message behind theAthosdecision is clear: the DMCA remains a notice‑driven system, and courts continue to resist efforts to require platforms to become proactive copyright police. It also arrives at a time when the U.S. Supreme Court is reconsidering the boundaries of copyright liability inCox

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