D. JonesPirates Of The Internet? YouTube Accused Of Malice!
April 17th 2010 20:10
Viacom charges that Google allowed malice on YouTube. The legal battle seems to be ongoing between Viacom and Google, with the latest twist to the digital soap opera, (and $1 billion in damages at stake!) Viacom is citing new unsealed documents in its lawsuit against Google that it believes gives weight to its allegations that YouTube violated its copyrights.
"Today, nine additional exhibits filed with our opening brief are being released to the public for the first time after Google dropped its objections," said Stanley Pierre-Louis, Viacom's vice president and associate general counsel.
"Taken together, these exhibits make clear one of our core claims in the case: That Google made a deliberate, calculated business decision not only to profit from copyright infringement, but also to use the threat of copyright infringement to try to coerce rights owners like Viacom into licensing their content on Google's terms." (Wow! High stakes extortion!) Viacom claims Google initially sought to keep these documents under seal, but has agreed to have them made public. The documents include a Google memo to executives before its 2006 YouTube acquisition that offers details about the search giant's strategy in chasing the company. The memo says, "YouTube's business model is completely sustained by pirated content (That was BAD move to put that in writing! Dumb guys, DUMB!) They are at the mercy of companies not responding to DMCA requests."
"To add insult to injury, Google then implemented fingerprinting and other copyright protection services, but only extended those services to companies willing to license content on Google's terms," Pierre-Louis said. "Google used that threat to get standard deal sign-up. Only Google could read the DMCA to condone that sort of thievery and malice."
DMCA is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which puts the onus on the copyright holder to inform a site in violation of the law and give the site owners an opportunity to remove the content before a lawsuit can be filed. Google isn't arguing that YouTube hosts pirated content, but insists the DMCA protects it. Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, said it's no revelation that there was copyrighted material on YouTube without Viacom's authorization, or that people at Google and YouTube were aware of it. That was previously established, he noted, and Viacom has also acknowledged clandestinely uploading clips itself to promote its shows (They both need to sit down somewhere! When the day is done, it's all about the almighty dollar for them both! Both sides, I'm sure, did something that they know they should not have done! Don't piss down our backs and tell us it's raining!)
"This new memo that Google executives said the business model was 'sustained' by 'pirated content' looks bad in the press but doesn't necessarily establish liability," (What?) Sterling said. "Certainly the cumulative body of leaked evidence, as it appears in the press reports, that YouTube and Google executives knew about and may have taken few, if any steps to address the copyright violations is problematic. However, we're only seeing pieces of the case reported on, so it's difficult to have a sense of how significant this may or may not be." (Boy, it must be raining again! That was a GOOD answer.... I ALMOST believe that!) Google's legal counsel had not publicly responded to Viacom's latest torpedo. In the meantime, Viacom keeps firing away, insisting that YouTube and Google made a calculated business decision to use other people's copyrighted content as their start-up capital (Um, yeah, I would have to concur...that is how they got off the ground to be the giant that they are today!)
| 52 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
