Google Wins YouTube Fight

Viacom, home of such entertainment giants as Paramount Pictures, Nickleodeon, MTV and Comedy Central has had its billion dollar lawsuit against YouTube uploading its content thrown out.

Viacom, home of such entertainment giants as Paramount Pictures, Nickleodeon, MTV and Comedy Central has had its billion dollar lawsuit against YouTube uploading its content thrown out.

The suit was initially filed in 2007 whereby they stated that YouTube was uploading its content illegally and issued over 100,000 ‘take-down’ orders. YouTube took down most of the videos when asked, but Viacom didn’t think it was quick enough.

YouTube argued – successfully – that they were entitled to what is known as ‘safe harbour’ under current digital copyright laws, whereby they must have notice of the exact video that breaches the copyright before they pull it down.

In a ruling that was 30 pages long, US District Judge Louis Stanton agreed with the Google-owned company that what YouTube had tried to do fell under the ‘safe harbour’ provisions.

To add to the confusion, it is alleged that some of Viacom’s aforementioned companies, uploaded videos to the sharing site themselves for promotional purposes, with some claiming that some of the videos mentioned in the actual suit were put up by Viacom employees.