Taken from MSN.com:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If a site removes content "expeditiously" when it receives notice from the copyright holder, then the site has a so-called safe harbor from lawsuits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The problem, Hughes said, was that the act, written during an earlier, pre-Napster Internet era, was not designed for infringement-based business models. While the act is unlikely to be rewritten, Hughes said it is open to judicial interpretation -- and added that a judge could come down hard on Google.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More lawsuits to come?

 

 

 

Meanwhile, media companies have been investing in their own Web video capabilities in an attempt to drive video traffic to their own sites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although Viacom, the owner of MTV Networks, Comedy Central and several other cable channels, as well as Paramount Pictures, is the first of the big media conglomerates to sue YouTube, it may not be the last.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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News Corp. (NWS, news, msgs), General Electric's (GE, news, msgs) NBC Universal and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban have also criticized YouTube. News Corp. and Cuban have both gone to court to force the company to identify people who illegally uploaded copyright material.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Tur, a freelance helicopter reporter who shot video during the Los Angeles riots in 1991 and who has sued YouTube over the publication of his videos, told CNBC that YouTube's business model is like that of TV's Sopranos: They "don't pay for anything, get your content for nothing and sell it to the highest advertiser. It's a wonderful business model, except it's illegal."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently, Google video and YouTube haven't been took strict about Copyright infringement. Discuss.

It'll end in out of court settlement. They cant justify losses of $1 billion. Viacom have shot themselves in the foot.

I agree with Viacom, but there's pretty much nothing you can do to more enforce copyright laws, due to the immense number of ways around them.

Youtube didn't put those videos up, people using Youtube who are not part of the company did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...And Youtube does their best to remove them via Viacom's (and other companies) requests. Just yesterday I clicked on a Colbert Report video and it had been deleted because Viacom asked them to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soooo, yea. QQ, Viacom.

If so many videos are going up that violate copy right laws, then the government, or some other officials will have to take measure, hence the lawsuit. If they can't control it, they (and other sites like it) may have to be shut down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although, this also happened ealier when Napster was big, and nothing really changed.

Trust me, Youtube will never have to shut down. Napster was directly for nothing other than illegal music sharing...Youtube has great intentions with some people doing things they shouldn't be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, I don't know why Viacom is [bleep]ing. If someone who has never seen the Colbert Report see's a clip and likes the show, they'll watch it. This has happened to me for several other shows so far. I mean, it's not like they're losing money if someone has a clip of a show up. I can uinderstand if someone posts a whole movie on Youtube, but come on.

The worse thing that will happen will be that YouTube might have to run some fee-based system, rather like Google Video does now for some of its videos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saying it's the 'end' is one hell of an exaggeration.

It's not the end at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's a 1,000 more youtubes who all happen to be smaller, and thus the largest of the video hosting sites is the one which must take the blame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's not a fad, and it's here to stay. They'll learn to live with it someday.

I think those media companies need to realize, even with these things, people are still going to post those.

 

 

 

So my msg to them, take hike and get ahobby..

well, no it wont kill youtube. Google will defend them saying (truly) that people who watch the clips usually watch the shows or are fans anyway and youtube is not taking their business away. besides, every other big network (abc, nbc, universal studios) has made a deal with youtube.

So my msg to them, take hike and get ahobby..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, but I believe they should be the one telling you that. They don't have billions in assets for not taking action.

Google is going to win, just like all of the "cached page" lawsuits, where some copyrighted website owners, even some more respected ones, sued google for copying and storing the info from their pages, like when you click on the cached link thing. Basically, a bunch of grumpy website owners went to court with phonebook ad lawyers, against googles "Sharp Dressed M[e]n" (oh noes, I might get sued for using a copyrighted song title, noes!)

They always remove many of the videos anyway. :x

After thinking it over, I don't really believe Viacom wants to sue Google, but wants to pressure them into setting up new YouTube policies for copyrighted material. If Google does so, I assume Viacom will drop the lawsuit.

if you didn't realize this yet...google rules the world

Operators cannot be held liable for content their users create but are expected to respond in a reasonable timeframe Once they have been notified.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If Operators were liable for what appeared on their sites kiss Web 2.0 goodbye!

I downloaded the latest Rocky movie off Google Video two days after it premiered :thumbsup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google tends to take care of copyright'd material pretty damn quick when and or if they are notified of it. You seriously can't expect them to spider through thousands of uploads every hour just to make sure nothing new is in breech of copyright - that's insane :uhh:

who's going to agree with someone who's trying to shut down Youtube? and what is Vietcom trying to achieve anyway? as long as theres file sharing, there will always be copyright infringement. If you somehow magically stop all file sharing, then you've just stopped the world :roll:

I'm with Google. Viacom is acting extremely stupid by the looks of it. Google does their best to keep copyrighted/illegal/offensive videos off YouTube.

Reminds me of Napster, but why is Viacom just sueing YouTube, there are many other places that host videos similar to YouTube.

Reminds me of Napster, but why is Viacom just sueing YouTube, there are many other places that host videos similar to YouTube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because YouTube is the largest with the most money. :roll:

Great. A GOOD website comes around where I can enjoy myself, and then some overly bored lifeless company owner wants to sue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Byebye, my fun and entertainment! I loved you before the Executives got ahold of you!!

If they actually succeeded in sueing Youtube (lol), and somehow bring the "end of Youtube" (lol, again), I wonder what the repurcusions will be of everyone completely and utterly hating Viacom :-k .

If they actually succeeded in sueing Youtube (lol), and somehow bring the "end of Youtube" (lol, again), I wonder what the repurcusions will be of everyone completely and utterly hating Viacom :-k .

More than the result of sueing them is worth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really don't think companies think before chasing legal action sometimes.

I think YouTube will still be around, some tidying up will need to be done though.