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Viacom sues Google for $1,000,000,000

Discussion in 'Google' started by clb, Mar 13, 2007.

  1. #1
    clb, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  2. mad4

    mad4 Peon

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    #2
    Digg: http://digg.com/tech_news/Breaking_Viacom_sues_Google_for_1_billion

    Viacom Inc. (VIA-NYSE) announced this morning that it has sued YouTube and Google (GOOG) for "massive intentional copyright infringement" of Viacom's entertainment properties. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks more than $1 billion in damages, In addition to the $1 Bilion Viacoms is seeking an injunction prohibiting Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement.

    The complaint contends that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom's programming have been available on YouTube and that these clips had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times. While others have threatened the company and have sent warnings this may be the biggest suit of its kind. Last year Google set aside some $200 million for lawsuits against the company after the YouTube acquisition. If Viacom is doing this, then logic might dictate that CBS (CBS-NYSE) would not be too far behind because of the old ties with the companies.

    Google (GOOG) has become somewhat used to suits and threats of suits against the company over numerous "opening up" of copyright issues at both the old-Google and the new Google post-YouTube and it has already made some basic disclosures on copyright suits in Filings, so even with the size of the suit this may not be the world's largest surprise of the day. GOOG shares are down less than 1% at $461.50 in pre-market activity.
     
    mad4, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  3. butterfingers

    butterfingers Well-Known Member

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    #3
    Wow...that's hell lotsa money...
     
    butterfingers, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  4. alexdale

    alexdale Active Member

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    #4
    This is interesting. But I doubt they're gonna win the case against the big G.
     
    alexdale, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  5. mad4

    mad4 Peon

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    #5
    Youtube could end up costing them a lot more than they planned.
     
    mad4, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  6. Fka200

    Fka200 Guest

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    #6
    With a company like Google, I am 100% sure they knew exactly what they were getting themselves into. They should have some tricks up their sleeve.
     
    Fka200, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  7. hulkster

    hulkster Peon

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  8. ReadyToGo

    ReadyToGo Peon

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    #8
    Meh, that's pocket change to Google; they have over $10 billion in cash and short-term investments.
     
    ReadyToGo, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  9. TorchedSEO

    TorchedSEO Well-Known Member

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    #9
    No doubt this was going to happen sooner or later, you can't just host videos and let anyone watch them without paying the creators of the content. My guess is google will settle out of court but as soon as they do other companies will start doing the same. But this is a chance somebody to setup a clickbank site with details on how to sue google for a 6 figure yearly income!
     
    TorchedSEO, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  10. tokyoice

    tokyoice Well-Known Member

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    #10
    Nice find :)
     
    tokyoice, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  11. jakomo

    jakomo Well-Known Member

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    #11
    Hello,

    Youtobe and Google knew about it, there are millons of music videos, etc etc...

    Jakomo
     
    jakomo, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  12. Mr Skyline

    Mr Skyline Peon

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    #12
    great publicity for them ... wonder how much more revenue they will gain as a result compared to what it costs them to settle out of court should they do so.
     
    Mr Skyline, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  13. Crusader

    Crusader Peon

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    #13
    This would be a very interesting case to watch and see what happens. Presumably the "safe harbor" clause under the DMCA will give YouTube/Google protection, but it will be interesting to see if it can be proven that they had knowledge of the infringement and didn't act upon it.
     
    Crusader, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  14. Pierce

    Pierce Active Member

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    #14
    At this rate that's 10 lawsuits. If you had 10bn in cash, would you want to give away 1/10th of it?

    Pierce
     
    Pierce, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  15. Freeaholics

    Freeaholics Peon

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    #15
    Google knew this was coming. They have everything from movies to music videos to tv sitcoms.
     
    Freeaholics, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  16. psyberweb

    psyberweb Peon

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    #16
    As always the DMCA will protect Google, Google did not buy YouTube if they knew that they cannot defend themselves in this kind of case. In the end, Viacom and Google will end up in a deal to license those videos that are owned by Viacom.
     
    psyberweb, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  17. grg

    grg Guest

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    #17
    grg, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  18. ReadyToGo

    ReadyToGo Peon

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    #18
    Pfft, sure. It's not giving away. YouTube wouldn't be as popular without copyrighted materials.
    Remeber that the $10 billion is not fixed; they're generating about $1 billion in OCF in one quarter alone.
     
    ReadyToGo, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  19. grg

    grg Guest

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    #19
    grg, Mar 13, 2007 IP
  20. grg

    grg Guest

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    #20
    I think they just want to push Google to respect copyrights and pay royalties for this exposure. Because only from services like youtube Viacom can earn ANY money because of fact of exposing music videos in internet. If they destroy services like youtube, everybody will back under ground...
     
    grg, Mar 13, 2007 IP