14 DAY TRIAL // The online video sharing service YouTube was sent to the court by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority after a violent car crash was posted on its official page. The video shows a 52-year-old man who dies after he smashes a toll plaza in New Jersey. According to Google Watch, The New Jersey Turnpike Authority sued several companies including NextPoint, the parent company of Break.com. It seems that the complaint was also involving LiveLeak, but this company was removed from the lawsuit after the video was deleted from the official page. "To be honest I think it's kind of a strange situation. Usually you just file a nice, low level, discrete DMCA takedown...And usually these lawsuits are around entertainment video, where there's a financial stake. I don't understand it," co-founder Hayden Hewitt said according to the same source.
"The NJTA is suing for direct copyright infringement by public performance, public display and reproduction, as well as inducement, contributory and vicarious copyright infringement," Google Watch added.
Since the Google acquisition in October 2006 for $1.65 billion, YouTube was continuously sued by a lot of companies, most of them accusing the search giant for copyright infringement. It all started with Daniela Cicarelli, Ronaldo's ex-wife who sued Google for publishing videos without authorization. A Brazilian court closed the regional version of the online video sharing service until the company removed all the clips showing the model. The most impressive lawsuit is surely the one involving Viacom, the owner of MTV and Comedy Central filing a complaint against Google for copyright infringement. The lawsuit came after only one week since the Mountain View company agreed to remove 100.000 clips owned by Viacom and published on YouTube. Meanwhile, a lot of other firms required Google to remove the clips posted on YouTube, the most important being Fox and the famous football player Pel?.