Viacom, YouTube Battle Heats Up: Execs Slammed 'Google Bastards'

May. 21, 2010:

A set of documents released Friday reveal just how nasty the Viacom and YouTube legal battle has become.

The ongoing debate over alleged copyright infringement has now gone from heated bickering to vicious cussing, highlighted by internal e-mails from each company.

Read the whole story: May. 21, 2010

Comments

[Shawn112]

07:47 PM on 05/24/2010

patents and copywrites are nothing more than guild fascism codified.

[politisophical]

03:25 PM on 05/24/2010

Viacom - those south park censoring cowards... i hope youtube wins

[Newsradiohead]

09:09 PM on 05/23/2010

I hope Youtube pulls off a victory. Youtube is strangely one of the few public forums where people of all political stripes can come and debate one another. As a liberal, it is one of the few places where I can take the pulse of gun nuts, conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, right wing revolutionaries and Tea Party types as I do not know any in real life. It deserves all of our support as an open forum for public discourse.

[spyguy68]

08:38 PM on 05/23/2010

As always, the old axiom "be real careful what you wish for" applies.

Viacom might win this battle, but it will surely lose the war because the technology behind YouTube is readily available and a new site based in some mysterious place will replace youtube and Viacom will be unable to stop it.

As another poster noted, Viacom should just digitally sign all their content and then pay Google to get a continuous stream from them, and set up the computers to automatically flag all their content to Google who will easily be able to remove stuff. This would mean that content would only be up a youtube for a few minutes.

Sure it would cost Viacom a few pennies, but if they value their content, they should do exactly as the law says and flag the content as soon as possible. I suspect that it would cost a whole lot less to develop and implement a "censorship" system than it has for them on the law suit.

[Eris23]

10:08 AM on 05/24/2010

I'm honestly not sure they will. Despite all the whining and posturing, they have yet to prove how a.) Google was in any way in violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and b.) added copyrighted content that they didn't own. Particularly since Google took over Youtube, the site is near draconian when it comes to adhering to the DMCA. The slightest allegation of copyright infringement from anyone, in very clear cases where no such infringement occurred, resulted in videos being taken offline, sometimes to be restored later after enough pressure. Since Google is registered with the copyright office as an ISP, and there is absolutely no evidence that they were adding copyrighted material (in fact, it has been alleged that Viacom was engaging in copyright infringement by uploading material it distributes to the network,), their quick and often erroneous compliance with takedown notices will have them completely sheltered by the safe harbor provision of the DMCA.

[larry278]

08:14 PM on 05/23/2010

HP needs more zest when it alludes 2 incest. Theys a lot ov igernt fothermuckers commintin 2 day/

[microsoap]

12:24 AM on 05/24/2010

Please. We've had enough Miley Cyrus stories, tyvm. :-)

[microsoap]

07:42 PM on 05/23/2010

Viacom *admited* in court papers that they owe a great deal of viewership to YT viewing. And in turn, YT owes it's bread and butter to copyrighted material. Just let these w h o r e s use one another freely.

[liarsclub75]

07:38 PM on 05/23/2010

I really want Viacom to fail. Viacom owns a video hosting site that steals content from TV, moves, and popular YT users. They are hypocrites from he11.

[realitytrumpsbull]

06:38 PM on 05/23/2010

What if everyone just went on a week-long internet boycott, no Googling, no Youtubing...?

[DRaymond]

06:07 PM on 05/23/2010

The first question is whether the technology exists to automatically detect copyrighted works. I believe that the answer to that is yes. Visit TinEye.com to see an example of it on still images.

But given that the technology exists, who has the legal obligation and the technical capacity to use it. I will let the lawyers work on the legal obligation part but I believe that the technical capacity better belongs with Viacom. Why? Because Viacom knows what their shows are before they air. They can have the electronic 'signatures' ready on their shows before they hit the airwaves. Viacom would have to pay for an automated stream that would download every new video posted on YouTube, but that would be within their technical and financial capabilities.

[Eris23]

10:09 AM on 05/24/2010

Yeah. There is absolutely no law which states a company must implement technology to automatically detect infringing works. It's simply nowhere to be found in the DMCA.

[JooJooMan]

11:30 AM on 05/23/2010

To Viacom and its supporters: The reason it's on Youtube is because you did not, could not figure out a cheap, reliable, better way to make your content available to the public in the age of Information Techonology revolution. You fell asleep like dinosaurs.

[studmoose]

02:28 PM on 05/23/2010

100% correct!

[Sumocat]

04:53 PM on 05/23/2010

Are you kidding? I watch The Daily Show and Colbert Report online just fine on their respective sites. Costs me nothing and it's on every day (well, as close to every day as possible given The Daily Show isn't a daily show). Includes extended interviews too.

[JooJooMan]

11:27 AM on 05/23/2010

I will never forgive those who try to block technologies instead of creating new and better ones to make the old and offending one obsolete.

[JooJooMan]

11:25 AM on 05/23/2010

Viacom has enough money to clone youtube.com using their own content and steer enough users to Viacom's version of youtube. Instead they are looking for ways and wasting energy to block others.

Imagine if everything that Viacom produces is made available by viacom high quality on a website that charges $100 per year to view everything you wanted.

[studmoose]

02:28 PM on 05/23/2010

$100 a year for the crap Viacom puts out?

[TylerSutherland]

06:37 PM on 05/23/2010

I can't even make 50$ from my yearly allowance for birthday/Christmas money, and this joker wants young kids to pay for Viacom? No. Welcome to the Age of YouTube, you are no longer needed anymore Viacom. Go down peacefully.