Viacom sues You Tube for $1 billion
Since we were discussing intellectual property or DRM in another thread... I was just curious what the legal minds think of the future of YouTube (and Google) now that Google has spent a billion dollars to purchase YT. Isn't Google now assuming the risks of copyright infringement and responsibility to uphold those copyright laws?
With the previous YT owners barely able to stay afloat and pay the massive bandwidth bills there was probably little insentive for many to haul YT into court. But now that the huge pockets of Google control it, will this spur a fleet of lawsuits from those whose copyrights are being severely infringed upon by having their content unlawfully hosted on YT? With billions in the Google bank, I bet some are now considering hauling Google into court.
I thought this was a bad move for a company (Google) that until now had made mostly smart business decisions and seen its IPO rise like no other since the 90's. Could this open a can of worms that Google might not be able to get out of?
note: I'm not talking about the millions of idiots who send in their own videos... I'm talking about the equal number of content created by third parties (Sports, TV shows, movie clips etc...) that people sent in without any permission from the originators.
Let this be a lesson to everyone.....
Ozzy is never wrong.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Dispatch/ViacomSuesYouTube.aspx?GT1=9215
"The lawsuit, the first big attack on the Google-owned video-sharing site, may just be a negotiating ploy. But it could be the first volley in a war between Google and its old-media rivals."
By Elizabeth Strott
Just days after Google (GOOG, news, msgs) CEO Eric Schmidt said that media companies will have no choice but to work with online sites such as YouTube, the first of the big media companies has responded -- with a $1 billion lawsuit.
Media giant Viacom (VIA, news, msgs) is charging that the video-sharing site, now owned by Google, has shown 160,000 of its videos without permission.
"Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws," Viacom said.
Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes said in a statement that the company has "not received the lawsuit but (is) confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree." Reyes said the suit would not "become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube."
Corporate arrogance?
One intellectual-property expert said he was "not surprised" by the suit.
"I think this is a problem for Google," said Justin Hughes, director of Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law's Intellectual Property Law Program. "Google has had a series of situations where it looks like corporate arrogance regarding intellectual property."
Video: SueTube? Viacom sues Google over copyright infringement
In buying YouTube, Google bought a business model largely based on infringement, Hughes said. Google's Book Search Library Project also suggests a corporate disregard for intellectual property, he added.
Partners or rivals?
Schmidt's earlier comments may have been a way to put pressure on Viacom and other media conglomerates as the one-time video upstart tries to negotiate terms for licensing deals.
Last month, after talks about a licensing deal failed, YouTube said it would remove 100,000 Viacom clips, including a number from Comedy Central shows.
"The growth of YouTube, the growth of online, is so fundamental that these companies are going to be forced to work with and in the Internet," Schmidt said last week in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Conversations with Judy Woodruff."
The lawsuit "is an initial attempt to move negotiations along," Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck wrote in a note to clients today. "Both sides would be better served with an agreement."
But not everyone agrees. "Viacom's Web traffic is increasing nicely since it pulled content from 'GooTube,' " Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Capital, told Reuters. "There is certainly an opportunity for YouTube to do a deal with Viacom, but Viacom does not have to have a YouTube deal."
Policing the site
The problem with YouTube, Viacom and the other big media players say, is that it will pull copyright clips only after its been asked to do so, putting the burden of policing content on the copyright holders and allowing users to re-post illegal copies as soon as they are removed.
Google and YouTube are relying on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed in 1998, which criminalizes technology whose primary purpose is to circumvent measures that control access to copyright works -- even when there is no actual infringement.