March 14, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Google (http://www.google.com) is in the news and once again it is YouTube (http://www.youtube.com) and copyright issues that are in the limelight. Viacom, the parent body of MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon, is suing Google for infringing its copyright by hosting around 160,000 video clips featuring content it created. Viacom’s complaint, filed at the U.S. District Court in New York, claims the clips have been viewed more than 1.5 billion times, denying writers, directors and the talent who created them the rewards they deserve. The action asks for 1 Billion dollars in damages and seeks an injunction that could ultimately shut YouTube down.
Analysts expected such a move to take place when Google bought YouTube, the company’s deep pockets proving an enticement to initiate expensive legal proceedings. The question merely was who would start the proceedings. To stave of potential actions, YouTube recently announced antipiracy technologies that it claimed were designed to halt the illegal sharing of videos. Unfortunately, Google suggested these tools would initially be released to its partners before anyone else, further casting doubts over the company’s commitment to antipiracy measures.
Despite the broadside, Google is confident YouTube is protected under current copyright law, its lawyers citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. An aggressive defense of YouTube is in the offing and lawyers will claim the Digital Millennium Copyright Act limits liability for firms that block access to pirated materials once the copyright holders inform them of an infringement. According to Google, companies like Amazon and eBay have both been protected by this aspect of the law.
