Viacom v. Google getting ugly
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Viacom's takedown order to Google hasn't come as a complete shock to most. There is quite a bit of material up on YouTube which belongs to other companies, but Google has operated under the protection of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act whereby they remove any unauthorized clips on request. This most recent request was much more public and hostile and the outcome has long-term legal implications.
Cory Doctorow @ BoingBoing brings up a great point on the method with which Viacom notified Google via spammed requests.
Per Cory:
Viacom did a general search on YouTube for any term related to any of its shows, and then spammed YouTube with 100,000 DMCA take-down notices alleging that all of these clips infringed its copyright and demanding that they be censored off the Internet.
This bulk search method caught other non-Viacom clips in the search. Viacom has also asked Google to keep future clips of their programs off the Google sites. This is not covered under the safe harbor act in the DMCA, clips are only removed on request. It'll be very interesting to see how Google responds.
March 13, 2007 -- UPDATE: Viacom has decided to sue YouTube for $1 billion.
March 14, 2007 -- UPDATE: See my latest post titled "Viacom v. YouTube, litigation v. innovation?
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Google, video, user generated content, social networks, YouTube