Viacom Loses To YouTube In Landmark Copyright Case

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: The Huffington Post

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge handed Google Inc. a major victory Wednesday by rebuffing media company Viacom Inc.'s attempt to collect more than $1 billion in damages for the alleged copyright abuses of Google's popular YouTube service.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton in New York embraces Google's interpretation of a 12-year-old law that shields Internet services from claims of copyright infringement as long as they promptly remove illegal content when notified of a violation.

That so-called "safe harbor" helped persuade Google to buy YouTube for $1.76 billion in 2006, even though some of the Internet search leader's own executives had earlier branded the video-sharing service as "a 'rogue enabler' of content theft," according to documents unearthed in the copyright infringement case.

Stanton "blessed the current state of play on the Internet," said Eric Goldman, a Santa Clara University associate professor who specializes in high-tech law. The affirmation was cheered by Internet service providers and free-speech groups who believe the Digital Millennium Copyright Act helps give more people an outlet to express themselves.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/23/youtube-viacom-lawsuit-se_n_623256.html

[Dennis Donovan]

1. YouTube's even gone a step further in HELPING media companies...

...by providing links to iTunes to BUY the content in the videos!

[high density]

2. So when you or I host copyrighted stuff, we get sued into oblivion and/or put in jail

But it is OK to for Google to do it a trillion times over as long as they take it down fast when somebody complains... Give me a freaking break.

[Wednesdays]

3. Is that common? I mean, someone put in jail for copyright violations?

:shrug:

[Posteritatis]

4. Viacom's suit was involved an impressive amount of fraud

They were at points paying companies to upload their content with the intent of gotcha-ing Google about hosting the stuff. This is more the equivalent of a copyright holder placing stuff on your site themselves and then suing you for its presence at a number of points.

[alp227]

5. Take THAT, Viahogs!

Now let's bankrupt the production budget of Jersey Shore...but WHAT ABOUT JON STEWART AND STEPHEN COLBERT OH NO I just realised THEY are also Viacom entertainers too!

Tell ya what. Why can't Youtube just provide links to Hulu and ComedyCentral.com etc. if people wanna watch Viacom programming and just searched Youtube.