FindLaw: Viacom Files Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against YouTube and Google Over Unauthorized Use Of The Company’s Shows: Viacom International, Inc. v. YouTube, Inc., YouTube, LLC, and Google, Inc., March 13, 2007.
Viacom statement: Suit Seeks Court Ruling To Require YouTube And Google To Comply With Copyright Laws And Pay $1 Billion In Damages
Google statement: “We are confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree. YouTube is great for users and offers real opportunities to rights holders: the opportunity to interact with users; to promote their content to a young and growing audience; and to tap into the online advertising market. We will certainly not let this suit become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube and its ability to attract more users, more traffic and build a stronger community.”
Update: New York Times Op-Ed: Make Way for Copyright Chaos, By Lawrence Lessig, Published: March 18, 2007 – “Last week, Viacom asked a federal court to order the video-sharing service YouTube to pay it more than $1 billion in damages for some 150,000 videos that Viacom claims it owns and YouTube users have shared. YouTube, the complaint alleges, has harnessed technology to willfully infringe copyrights on a huge scale, threatening not just Viacom, but the economic underpinnings of one of the most important sectors of the United States economy.”
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