Viacom Sues Google/Youtube For $1Billion Over Copyright Infringement

[DudeAsInCool]

MTV owner Viacom Inc. sued the popular video-sharing site YouTube and its corporate parent, Google Inc., on Tuesday, seeking more than $1 billion in damages on claims of widespread copyright infringement.

Viacom claims that YouTube has displayed nearly 160,000 unauthorized video clips from its cable networks, which also include Comedy Central, VH1 and Nickelodeon.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, marks a sharp escalation of long-simmering tensions between Viacom and YouTube and represents the biggest confrontation to date between a major media company and the hugely popular video-sharing site, which Google bought in November for $1.76 billion.

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If Google and Youtube weren't complying with copyright owner's wishes to take down material, then and only then, would they have a problem. Under DMCA rules, Youtube and Google have acted appropriately, and Viacom is another bloodsucking corporate beast that does not understand what consumers demand these days.

[method77]

didn't youtube strike a deal with comedy central a while ago?

[DudeAsInCool]

Apparently, that deal didn't go through.

***

Business Week weighs on the suit - Google and Youtube will win over Viacom.

"More important, Google can argue that it has been following the letter of the law, namely provisions of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, that shield sites from unintended copyright infringement—provided that the copyrighted clips are removed once they are notified of their existence. "People who follow the law are allowed to stay in business even if they are not paying content owners," maintains Fred von Lohmann, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit law firm specializing in cases involving violations of Internet freedoms."

[DudeAsInCool]

Tailrank has compiled a list of links frm around the web, some which take the side of Viacom, and some which take the side of Google/Youtube

They can argue all they want, but Google/Youtube has complied under the DMCA rules and Viacom should wake up to consumers' needs. Here is my comment on Mark Cuban's blog, who is under the illusion that Viacom will prevail on the issue.

Your post missed an important ingredient - the consumer. No

one, least of all the owners at Youtube, ever expected that consumer

generated content would take off like it has. Therefore, to believe

that Youtube could have anticpated such is a folly, and further, even

with better copyright guards, Viacom would have sued them anyway. The

bottom line is this: consumers want involved with media, and as usual,

the entertainment business missed out on an opportunity to accellerate

and monetize this. So now, with their heads still stuck in the sand,

they sue, sue, sue...instead of coming up with intelligent business

models, or working with technology partners. Google/Youtube will win

because they have complied under the DMCA rules to take down

copyrighted material. Viacom will not only lose the suit, but will

gain a black eye from the consumers--if Viacom had listened to them

in the first place, they wouldnt be in this predicament.

[DudeAsInCool]

Why isn't Viacom suing IFilm? It owns it

Read more at ValleyWag

[DudeAsInCool]

Google cites Safe Harbor, fair use in Viacom v. YouTube defense

Google has finally filed its answer in the case of Viacom v. YouTube, accusing Viacom of threatening "the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment, and political and artistic expression" with its lawsuit.

Although Google raises a number of defenses in its response, they really come down to two issues: DMCA Safe Harbors and fair use. Under the DMCA's Safe Harbor provision, a web site operator cannot be held liable for infringing material posted by one of its users if it takes down the material once it is notified by the rights-holder. YouTube is covered under the DMCA Safe Harbor, argues Google, because it immediately responds to takedown notices—sometimes without investigating their legitimacy—once they are issued.

Viacom says that's not enough...

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