Viacom sues Google and YouTubeBobbie Johnson, technology correspondent
Tuesday March 13, 2007Guardian Unlimited
Media conglomerate Viacom has broken cover against Google by suing the internet giant and its YouTube video sharing website for $1bn (£517m).
The company, which owns TV channels including MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy, today filed a suit with a US district court in New York, attacking Google for "massive intentional copyright infringement" and asking for an injunction to prevent users posting more of its videos to YouTube.
"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," said New York-based Viacom in a statement.
"Their 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.
"In fact, YouTube 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."
The $1.65bn acquisition of YouTube by Google last year led many industry insiders to speculate that a slew of lawsuits could follow from angry broadcasters.
Viacom's is the first major lawsuit to hit the Silicon Valley giant.
The statement accuses Google of failing to make positive steps to redress the situation.
"After a great deal of unproductive negotiation, and remedial efforts by ourselves and other copyright holders, YouTube continues in its unlawful business model. 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."
Earlier this month a stand-off between the two companies looked to have been solved after Google agreed that it would remove thousands of pieces of copyrighted content from YouTube.
Viacom recently agreed a deal with Joost, a new peer-to-peer TV company from the creators of Skype, to distribute the company's TV shows and channels online. That agreement could have paved the way for the latest action, which builds on increasing pressure over Google's approach to copyright.
The internet company's stance has come in for criticism from broadcasters, publishers and newspaper groups in recent weeks – and last week Microsoft launched a broadside at its rival for what it called a "cavalier" approach to copyright.
Tuesday March 13, 2007Guardian Unlimited
Media conglomerate Viacom has broken cover against Google by suing the internet giant and its YouTube video sharing website for $1bn (£517m).
The company, which owns TV channels including MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy, today filed a suit with a US district court in New York, attacking Google for "massive intentional copyright infringement" and asking for an injunction to prevent users posting more of its videos to YouTube.
"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," said New York-based Viacom in a statement.
"Their 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.
"In fact, YouTube 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."
The $1.65bn acquisition of YouTube by Google last year led many industry insiders to speculate that a slew of lawsuits could follow from angry broadcasters.
Viacom's is the first major lawsuit to hit the Silicon Valley giant.
The statement accuses Google of failing to make positive steps to redress the situation.
"After a great deal of unproductive negotiation, and remedial efforts by ourselves and other copyright holders, YouTube continues in its unlawful business model. 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."
Earlier this month a stand-off between the two companies looked to have been solved after Google agreed that it would remove thousands of pieces of copyrighted content from YouTube.
Viacom recently agreed a deal with Joost, a new peer-to-peer TV company from the creators of Skype, to distribute the company's TV shows and channels online. That agreement could have paved the way for the latest action, which builds on increasing pressure over Google's approach to copyright.
The internet company's stance has come in for criticism from broadcasters, publishers and newspaper groups in recent weeks – and last week Microsoft launched a broadside at its rival for what it called a "cavalier" approach to copyright.
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