Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

[SPTO]

This doesn't bode well for Youtube

Here's the pertinent parts of the article:

NEW YORK - MTV owner Viacom Inc. said Tuesday it has sued YouTube and its corporate parent Google Inc. in federal court for alleged copyright infringement and is seeking more than $1 billion in damages.

Viacom claims that the more than 160,000 unauthorized video clips from its cable networks, which also include Comedy Central, VH1 and Nickelodeon, have been available on the popular video-sharing Web site.

The lawsuit marks a sharp escalation of long-simmering tensions between Viacom and YouTube. Last month Viacom demanded that YouTube remove more than 100,000 unauthorized clips after several months of talks between the companies broke down.

In a statement, Viacom lashed out at YouTube’s business practices, saying it 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.”

Viacom said YouTube’s business model, “which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws.”

[Jimplication]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

It was bound to happen.

I'm most curious about what the consequences (if any) there are for the individual users that are uploading these unathorized videos.

[luv_mist]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

I'm curious to know if this will cause less traffic to myspace in the future as well as how much it will affect their structure. That site is so great when trying to find those little things that you hear about like games and movie things.

[Skerik]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

In a statement, Viacom blasted what it deemed YouTube’s “clearly illegal” business model, riding on advertising sales and traffic tied to “unlicensed content.” The media giant accused YouTube of building “a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others’ creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google.”

“In fact, YouTube’s strategy has been to avoid taking proactive steps to curtail the infringement on its site, thus generating significant traffic and revenues for itself while shifting the entire burden–and high cost–of monitoring YouTube onto the victims of its infringement,” Viacom said in a statement.

Considering that I don't think YouTube meets the defined requirements for "safe harbor," I think they might be in trouble here. Regardless, I expect them to battle this to its bitter end because handing a settlement to Viacom will have all the other content providers lining up for their settlements.

If anyone is interested, here's an explanation of "safe harbor" as it relates to the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act. That Act is designed to protect service providers, but only if they adhere to the safe harbor requirements. And I don't think YouTube does, since they have no mechanism by which to filter copyrighted content from appearing on their site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Copyright_Infringement_Liability_Limitation_Act#Requirements_to_obtain_the_safe_harbor

[Pared]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion



Did someone say $1 billion!??

[jmood88]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

In a statement, Viacom lashed out at YouTube’s business practices, saying it 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 actually agree with that but I don't understand what they're suing for. If they put the episodes online then it wouldn't be a problem. I really don't see why it's a big deal anyway, no one is making money off of them and people get to see a show that they like.

[The C]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

I actually agree with that but I don't understand what they're suing for. If they put the episodes online then it wouldn't be a problem. I really don't see why it's a big deal anyway, no one is making money off of them and people get to see a show that they like.

I would imagine Viacom feels they are losing money because of youtube.

Why buy a dvd of a season for a specific show when you can watch it on youtube?

But that is just my guess.

[jmood88]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

I would imagine Viacom feels they are losing money because of youtube.

Why buy a dvd of a season for a specific show when you can watch it on youtube?

But that is just my guess.

There aren't too many people uploading entire seasons of shows and the quality is so bad that I don't know why someone would rather watch it on youtube then have the dvd's. Of course there are cheap people out there but still, they probably wouldn't have bought them anyway.

[pk500]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

Come on, guys: You know they'll settle out of court, with Viacom receiving money and some sort of revenue sharing with Google/YouTube in return for allowing Viacom content on YouTube.

Do you honestly think Viacom wants to stop this in the name of copyright infringement? Hell, no -- it wants an easy piece of the financial pie since it was too stupid and short-sighted to think of online content distribution itself.

Take care,
PK

[Beantown]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

Come on, guys: You know they'll settle out of court, with Viacom receiving money and some sort of revenue sharing with Google/YouTube in return for allowing Viacom content on YouTube.

Do you honestly think Viacom wants to stop this in the name of copyright infringement? Hell, no -- it wants an easy piece of the financial pie since it was too stupid and short-sighted to think of online content distribution itself.

Take care,
PK

And yet, as Skerik said, if every other company finds out Viacom could get them to settle...what is to stop every other company from lining up and getting their own settlement?

[RubenDouglas]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

there getting free exposure.. deal with it.

if your shows are actually worth it, theyll buy the DVDs from you.

[Cebby]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

It's time for the overseas bank account bankruptcy strategy

[pk500]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

And yet, as Skerik said, if every other company finds out Viacom could get them to settle...what is to stop every other company from lining up and getting their own settlement?

If the alternative is losing and paying $1 billion, I would think that "GooTube" might try to find some sort of middle ground with these content producers.

Take care,
PK

[RubenDouglas]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

^maybe like what MSN provides.

theyll have a 7 minute non saveble clip thats part 1 of the 22 minute show, then inbetween part1 and part2, is a 1 minute long commerical.. Rinse and repeat.

I wouldnt mind that , but its not usually the WHOLE show that people want. just little tidbits. how do you regulate tidbits with a 30 second commerical when the clip is only 15 seconds long???

[jmood88]

Re: Viacom officially sues Youtube for $1 Billion

^maybe like what MSN provides.

theyll have a 7 minute non saveble clip thats part 1 of the 22 minute show, then inbetween part1 and part2, is a 1 minute long commerical.. Rinse and repeat.

I wouldnt mind that , but its not usually the WHOLE show that people want. just little tidbits. how do you regulate tidbits with a 30 second commerical when the clip is only 15 seconds long???

Well you can never save youtube clips anyway without special plug-ins that usually don't work.