Tech | May 26, 2008 | 12 comments

Viacom's lawsuit threatens YouTube's freedom

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080526/ap_on_hi_te/youtube_lawsuit

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A $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit challenging YouTube's ability to keep copyrighted material off its popular video-sharing site threatens how hundreds of millions of people exchange all kinds of information on the Internet, YouTube owner Google Inc. saidGoogle's lawyers made the claim in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan as the company responded to Viacom Inc.'s latest lawsuit alleging that the Internet has led to "an explosion of copyright infringement" by YouTube and others.The back-and-forth between the companies has intensified since Viacom brought its lawsuit last year, saying it was owed damages for the unauthorized viewing of its programming from MTV, Comedy Central and other networks, including such hits as "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."
In papers submitted to a judge late Friday, Google said YouTube "goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content owners to protect their works."
It said that by seeking to make carriers and hosting providers liable for Internet communications, Viacom "threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and artistic expression."
Google said YouTube was faithful to the requirements of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, saying the federal law was intended to protect companies like YouTube as long as they responded properly to content owners' claims of infringement.

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12 comments // Viacom's lawsuit threatens YouTube's freedom

  • jubal
  • celestialceiling
    • 0
      celestialceiling  

    • We need to redefine internet copyright laws so that everyone can get their fair share. Viacom deserves a portion, as do I.

      Money can be made from Educational ventures, it doesn't need to be profit driven, or even profit minded to make money. We should all be sharing in profits instead of mindlessly uploading free content without any special rights.

    • 4 years ago
  • stopnoise
    • 0
      stopnoise  

    • I totally understand your point Celestial, however in some instance Copyright Violations has to do with personal intent and profits. What was the personal intent? If a mix of works was done to educate the public and not for profit or not to be used for profit in anyways, I personally think there are no infringements on it.

      - What do you think about it?

    • 4 years ago
  • celestialceiling
    • 0
      celestialceiling  

    • Youtube should pay creators of content, whether that be The Daily Show, or something I made. Everyone should benefit from ads.

      Artists like us could profit based of view counts.

      Join teams everyone

    • 4 years ago
  • Argon18
    • 0
      Argon18  

    • That lawsuit has already done it's damage to YouTube's freedom and it's a thing of the past since they have been policing it with a lot more ruthlessness taking down loads of videos and suspending people's accounts right and left for copyright violations.

      Viacom can't get much farther since YouTube has plenty of evidence to show the judge of their claim that they were "faithful to the requirements of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, saying the federal law was intended to protect companies like YouTube as long as they responded properly to content owners' claims of infringement."

    • 4 years ago
  • stopnoise
    • 0
      stopnoise  

    • As an Artist here is how I see it:

      1. Yes I know the artist creator needs to get paid for his work,
      2. However it will also hurt the Artist free promotion and advertise of its work. YouTube actually favors many artists with free advertise and promotion.
      3. It will hurt creativity.
      4. Why these Companies don't take their time and money by developing a low legal subscription to content creators to decriminalize the whole thing. That just proves how "mediocre" they are.

      It has to be a balance between these people and number four will do just that.

    • 4 years ago
  • keeshii768
    • 0
      keeshii768  

    • The only thing worthwhile that Viacom has contributed is "The Daily Show." Even the name Viacom sounds like some evil corrupt corporation meant to enslave our minds.

    • 4 years ago
  • celestialceiling
    • 0
      celestialceiling  

    • Hey Viacom:

      Why not help us watch youtube and other video sites by joining teams, investing in them. help develop youtube and other "content" sites, by being a licencing agent, allowing you to join in on ad revenues.

      Help develop youtube and other new media sites into more organized systems by funding them and sharing a profit percentage.

      Why not try to funnel websites like this back onto television? so that people can watch online videos, sitting together as a family on the couch.

      Isn't that the inevitable future of entertainment? Get with the program and use your "billion dollars" in a more productive manner!

    • 4 years ago
  • MaRibElfalcon76
  • Christof
  • huntre
    • 0
      huntre  

    • Leave it to Viacom to purposefully ignore the advantages of having clips from their programming on YouTube where the viewer might decide to start watching the entire show based on said clip and, instead, see it as a way to make a quick "Billion".
      Gluttons.

    • 4 years ago
  • celestialceiling
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