Viacom Sues Google/YouTube

Entertainment giant, Viacom (owner of such names as MTV and Nickelodeon) is suing Google for “massive copyright infringement” over the use of copyrighted video material on Google-owned YouTube.com. Viacom is seeking in the region of $1 billion in damages.

In its complaint, Viacom makes some very strong statements, such as

[s]ome entities, rather than taking the lawful path of building businesses that respect intellectual property rights on the Internet, have sought their fortunes by brazenly exploiting the infringing potential of digital technology. YouTube is one such entity.

In the complaint, Viacom also claims that YouTube.com contains over 150,000 video clips of their copyrighed material.

In my opinion, go Viacom!! They are certainly correct in asserting that YouTube.com is infringing the rights of many, many copyright holders and I think this will end up being a landmark case in ensuring that intellectual property rights in digital materials are honored on the Internet. I can't wait to see how the case develops!

You can read more details of Viacom v. YouTube on Findlaw.com.