Google responds to Viacom’s $1b YouTube lawsuit

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Wednesday, 14 March 2007

Yesterday Viacom decided that enough was enough and brought out the legal big guns in choosing to sue Google and YouTube for $1b worth of copyright violations – and now Google responds.

Viacom says that over 160,000 ‘unauthorized’ video clips containing video content they own has been seen over 1.5 billion times through YouTube, causing them financial losses and more. Viacom says that YouTube and Google “are continuing to take the fruit of our efforts without permission and destroying enormous value in the process”, value which belong to the writers, directors and talent who create it, and Viacom who has invested it in to make all that content possible.

Viacom have pulled no punches, claiming that “unproductive negotiation” has lead nowhere, with “YouTube continuing in its unlawful business model”, and so therefore Viacom says “we must turn to the courts” to “prevent Google and YouTube from continuing to steal value from artists” and “obtain compensation for the significant damage they have caused”.

All kinds of questions are raised – does what YouTube offer fall within the provisions of ‘fair use’? Is Viacom being overly dramatic or simply unreasonable in coming to a deal with YouTube by asking for too much money? Will Viacom be successful in getting as many viewers for their content as has been achieved with YouTube? Will any lawyers go hungry while this case rages through the courts?

Plenty of other questions remain, and will no doubt be analyzed heavily in the media, and answered mostly in court through the legal process.

The one big thing missing, however, in all this lawsuit madness, has been a response from Google and YouTube. This morning, a Google spokesperson sent iTWire a Google-issued statement in their first post-lawsuit Viacom response:

"We are confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree. YouTube is great for users and offers real opportunities to rights holders: the opportunity to interact with users; to promote their content to a young and growing audience; and to tap into the online advertising market. We will certainly not let this suit become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube and its ability to attract more users, more traffic and build a stronger community."

So, while that’s most unlikely to cause Viacom to ring the lawyers and drop the lawsuit, it means the opening post-lawsuit warning shot salvos have been fired on both sides, with the biggest munitions still tucked away, yet ready to be brought into battle at any time.

It’s shaping up to be the biggest battle of 2007, and if you miss the TV news resports covering the issue over the next few months, you’ll probably find that someone will have uploaded them to YouTube, the Internet TV channel spreading joy into users hearts and chills down the spines of traditional TV executives worldwide!
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