The US copyright laws protect user generated content websites like Youtube and Veoh from lawsuits with the so called 'Safe Harbor clause'. Especially when those companies make an efford to notify users about the illegality of posting copyrighted materials or even opt to remove the suspected copyrighted materials.

Because Veoh performs a conversion on user-uploaded materials Universal thought it could claim that Veoh actually disqualified itself by doing this. Universal proceeded to file a lawsuit against Veoh instead of the normal procedure of notifying the website company of the existance of copyrighted materials which in turns takes down the material.

The Judge ruled against Universal as some sort of conversion us always neccesary to be able to 'serve' the content out to the public and that this doesn't mean that the 'Safe Harbor clause' isn't applicable. This lawsuit could have proven disastrous for user-generated content sites of the Judge had thought otherwise. It is amazing how much consequences a simple obnoxious lawsuit can have for tons or even millions of people.

Perhaps the human species can make it a whole lot simpler for themselves - earning money with materials that are not yours is forbidden - but surely it should be possible to use let's say part of the musical soundtrack of the movie Amelie to make the world premiere/debut of your firstborn - who happened to be called Amelie - in your very own private Youtube movie? If you use that same score in a promotional video in which you offer a product or service that's a whole different matter. It all could be so very very simple.