Google's subsidiary YouTube and Viacom are currently involved in a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit, which was initiated by Viacom in February 2007. According to Viacom, YouTube is to be held responsible for the high number of video materials that don't respect copyright rules. 160,000 of these videos are said to be unauthorized Viacom clips, which total more than 1.5 billion views.
According to a recent update on the copyright infringement lawsuit,
Google's lawyers are claiming that Viacom's lawsuit threatens the way in which hundreds of millions of people exchange all types of information on the Internet. Since the lawsuit was started, back in 2007, the quarrel between the companies has intensified, with Viacom claiming that it has to pay damages for unauthorized viewing of its programming from MTV, Comedy Central and other networks.
According to the papers submitted by Google to the presiding judge last Friday, YouTube "goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content owners to protect their works." Google also says that its subsidiary, YouTube, has followed the requirements of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act to the letter. Google also adds that the federal law was created to protect companies like YouTube, as long as it responds to claims of infringement from content owners.
It appears that Viacom thinks Google's example isn't the best. According to a rewritten lawsuit filed last month, Viacom has declared that YouTube is still allowing unauthorized copies of popular television programming and movies to be uploaded on its site. Viacom also stated that the high number of unauthorized clips, which it counted on YouTube, is but a fraction of the real number. It also implied that Google and YouTube have done "little or nothing" to cut down the number of videos violating copyrights.
If Viacom, the network cable operator that owns MTV and Nickelodeon, wins this $1 billion lawsuit, then it will probably change the way users interact with the Internet for good.
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