A Buffalo lawsyer is suing CBC and CNN over the use of his YouTube video. (Credit: Pixabay)

A Buffalo, N.Y. man is suing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and CNN for copyright infringement after both used his video.

The man, Alfonzo Cutaia, posted in Nov. 2014 a “31-second time-lapse filmed from Cutaia’s downtown Buffalo office” showing “a severe snowstorm,” the Canadian Press reported. Here is the video. Cutaia is a lawyer whose website says he “focuses on patent practice in the general electrical, software, and mechanical arts, as well as trademark and copyright prosecution.”

Cutaia told the Canadian Press he let any media that wanted to use his “viral” video do so, as long as they embedded or linked to it so he could take advantage of YouTube’s monetization program and to track how many people watched it.

But CBC didn’t ask for permission, he said, and re-uploaded the video on its own website with its logo. Cutaia complained to the CBC, which responded that it used the video “under a 10-day license from CNN,” Cutaia told the Canadian Press.

Cutaia’s lawsuit is posted here, the Huffington Post noted.

Cutaia told the Buffalo News, “I’m not a crusader, but I know what my rights are.”

His lawsuit was filed in the U.S. for “copyright infringement and with pirating the video from YouTube,” according to the Buffalo News.  He doesn’t specify damages, but says he would like the case to be heard by a jury, if and when it makes it to trial,” the Buffalo News reported.

iMediaEthics asked CBC for comment.

“As yet we have not been served and as this is now a matter now before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment any further,” CBC spokesperson Chuck Thompson told iMediaEthics by e-mail. He told iMediaEthics that the CBC took the video down.

CNN declined to comment to iMediaEthics.

iMediaEthics has contacted Cutaia via e-mail for comment about his lawsuit.