Viacom is suing Youtube for $1 billion copyright infringement suit. The case began shortly after Google bought Youtube in 2007. Viacom asserts that YouTube showed copyright clips without permission. In retaliation, YouTube maintains its claim that it follows the Internet’s copyright laws.
Viacom’s Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman said, “The issue we had with YouTube, in particular, was that a lot of the content we produce professionally was being uploaded without a license agreement. We have nothing against YouTube. It’s a wonderful service.”
Since, March 13, 2007, this lawsuit has been unraveling, and it looks as though Google will not go down without a fight. Google claims that Viacom employees uploaded clips to YouTube as they were fighting about the copyright infringement, and Viacom filed the suit after Google bought the site with no hopes of any partnership between the two. Rather than using their company e-mail addresses, Google is also accusing Viacom of uploading videos through disguised e-mail addresses of Viacom marketing agents.
Google also argues that it is impossible to know which videos are uploaded without permission. Therefore, one of Google’s methods of defense has been to obey the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and it takes down videos when a copyright owner says they are uploaded with no permission.
It is interesting to see how this case will be resolved, because both plaintiff and defendant make appealing claims and neither are backing down without a fight. If you are interested in finding out more go to: NY TIMES and USA TODAY
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