YouTube sued for $1 Bn by Viacom
It looks that Google has some problems. I would say very serious problems, considering the fact they were sued for more than 1 billion US dollars by media company Viacom International. The reason is simple and already well-known: almost 160,000 unauthorised Viacom’s video clips are available for viewing on YouTube. New York-based Viacom also says it is seeking an injunction prohibiting Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement. In a statement emailed by a company spokesman, Google says it hasn’t yet received the lawsuit but is “confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree.”
Viacom, in its statement says, “YouTube is a significant, for-profit organisation that has built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others’ creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent, Google.” I think the most of you will agree with me when I say that YouTube is actually an amazing service not focused on earning some insane revenue, but rather providing the quality content. Every second website on the internet actually has more ads than YouTube. The dream of Viacom managers which should ensure them a serious income stream from Google’s pocket is really clear after reading few lines of this lawsuit: “There is no question that YouTube and Google are continuing to take the fruit of our efforts without permission and destroying enormous value in the process. Therefore, we must turn to the courts to prevent Google and YouTube from continuing to steal value from artists and to obtain compensation for the significant damage they have caused.” I really hope the court will be wise enough to find some compromise, because paying such a riddiculous fine (almost as the sum payed for YouTube itself) would only start the avalanche of new copyright lawsuits…
Comments(26)
google is ruining youtube, so many clips are being taken down now it’s just going to be left with crappy video blogs and people that can’t dance or sing pretending they can.
well they can’t leave it like it was, because there really were and are many copyrighted materials, but $1bn is just little too much. it looks that these guys who sold it had a pretty good timing…
freaking viacom worms. if you’re a viacom agent – just to make you angry I download all southpark episodes and even the dvdrip of bigger longer uncut. so ha ha. then I post them on youtube.
its DR.EVIL company
WE WANT 1 BILLION GAZILLION TRILION DOLLARS HAHAHAHAHHAHA
SO WE CAN BUILD A LARGE BIGBOY
They’re not getting a dime, I can almost guarantee it unless they decide they’re lazy and settle out of court. Under the DMCA, theres just no justification for suing someone who would comply with DMCA takedown notifications. Basically, Google would delete the files they wanted them to delete if they just asked. Viacom just doesn’t want to bother asking.
Yet another bullshit lawsuit.
United States of America – Home of the Bullshit Lawsuits!
I think America is going to have to change that line about being “Land of the Free”. Might want to change it to “Land of Hypocrisy”.
United States of America…They fight for FREEDOM.
That is FREEDOM for THEIR corporations to fuck EVERYBODY over! (That includes fellow Americans!)
lol minime your comment is just hilarious
btw dr evil, youtube ? : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2drIh6HQ78
No surprises here, well I am a little surprised they only want a Billion.
It’s rediculous. Youtube DOES NOT POST CONTENT. The USERS POST CONTENT.
Why aren’t they going after the users? Simple, they are losing piracy battles against users on a daily basis, and Google has deep ass pockets.
Look at it this way, I own a house with a wall facing an alley. Someone comes in the middle of the night and spraypaints Metallica guitar tabs on the side of my house.
Metallica shows up and sues ME for a billion dollars.
Same retarded scenario, I can only hope google has the BALLS to fight this cause they will win. At the very least they should setup a service like most of the smart torrent sites have. If you are a copyright holder and see your content used without permission, you contact them, they remove it.
Youtube is about as far from a cash cow as you can get. Hell I get more adds visiting THIS site.
Nice post phishybong =p
I’m so sick and tired of hearing about all these bullshit lawsuits. Unfortunately I can’t imaigne an end to them with the current state of affairs =\ The battle on piracy is a losing one and only by adapting business practices to compensate for the changing circumstaces of piracy can any progress be made.
You’re all retarded. The only reason you support YouTube is because you all benefit from it. But if you had a show that was being broadcast on there taking away from your profits I bet you would be pissed.
Phishybongwaters your analogy doesn’t hold. Google is making money from Youtube but in your example you are not making money from the metallica tab on the side of your house.
Google is making a profit from youtube and its probably more than any of you can count. Google is a company why else would they buy youtube? To lose money? Get real. The great thing about America is you can’t get rich off someone else’s ideas so the lawsuit is justified. If you create something you should be entitled to the profit that that something makes.
poop, how hypocrite can you be?
“If you create something you should be entitled to the profit that that something makes.”
really, what the f&^k are you doing on this site then?
phishybongwaters:
Viacom is not the RIAA… the only possible connection is that Viacom owns MTV, which is somehow connected to music these days.
Anyway, there are plenty of warnings about copyrighted videos in uploading to YouTube and some video filtering set up, but that technology is far from perfect. Viacom really has no shot.
I’m sorry, I’m a bit “simple-minded” but how does Viacom lose money if a TV show or even a commercial for a show is posted on YouTube? I mean, I would and do I watch the shows on TV anyways (I live in Finland so we are a few seasons behind on every show), that’s why I use Youtube to find CLIPS of shows like cribs or something. Whole shows like southpark I download and then record them on VCR/DVD when they air on TV over here. Can someone explain how Viacom loses money on this? I see it as they would get more ad/exposure for their shows and more people would watch them..
“really, what the f&^k are you doing on this site then?”
Am I making a profit off this website? I was unaware.
Cyder. Instead of people watching the show on television they watch it on the internet. Because the shows on the net are edited to exclude commercials the advertisers lose out because no one saw their commercials so start not advertising with the show anymore. Therefore the person who makes the show loses out because no one wants to advertise with them.
Very simple solution, all they have to do is setup a system where if the content is flagged as copyrighted on youtube, then simply have the owner of the content be able to put up a pool of it’s own adds. Thus, for instance, when Fox flags a family guy clip, and they currently have a contract with Ford, for instance, then that clip will pull in a Ford banner add from the pool.
Broadcasters are loosing alot more add revenue from TiVO then they ever will from YouTube.
Another lame and stupid lawsuit..
One might question that copyrighted content on YouTube can actually hurt any real companies.. The quality is so low, that only a few people would actually bother watching movies off it, and videoclips are nothing more than promo material. Think of YouTube as free advertising for those artists. If someone thinks of youtube as real warez then they haven’t experienced such a thing.
again poop, how hypocrite can you be?
“Therefore the person who makes the show loses out because no one wants to advertise with them.”
are you serious? what are you doing on this site?
you support torrents but you don’t support this? that’s funny
f%$k viacom
US = Talibans of Internet !!!
yep, google makes profit with youtube, in quadrilions of dolars… so what… viacom cant hurt them… why? they are lame pussys thats why!
Rico i dont agree quite , the way i see it:
US = F.U.B.A.R. and will be the doom of us all… no medicine for stupidity
loving the anger. like anyone didn’t see this coming after YouTube partnered with the BBC and started hinting about revenue sharing with posters. and this has nothing to do with the US, anyone in a country that honors copy/digital rights could have done it. which is why Vivendi is getting in line for the next set of law suits.
and wtf, which one of you really cares if TV shows are on Tube? uh, torrent, hello?
source?
Google suck, they have never made any original content like movies, books, art, music or journalism.
I hope they lose and Viacom wins, and they lose to the journalists as well.
They are just like ebaumsworld , stealing content and selling it.
http://ebaumsworldsucks.com/articles/flash.html
Death to Google, Death to Youtube, allalalahalhalha
If Viacom wins the lawsuit, I record myself singing a song, that I will write in 2 minutes, put a copyright on it, and put it up on YouTube… then I will go and sue them, for posting my copyrighted song, and I will win billions of dollars:D Yes… this is what I will do:D