YouTube Victorious in Battle with Viacom

Google is reporting that it has won its long legal battle with Viacom. Google Vice President & General Counsel Kent Walker had the following to say on the YouTube blog:

Today, the court granted our motion for summary judgment in Viacom’s lawsuit with YouTube. This means that the court has decided that YouTube is protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) against claims of copyright infringement. We’re extremely gratified by this decision and the now established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are immune from liability when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them protect their rights online.

This is an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other. We’re excited about this decision and look forward to renewing our focus on supporting the incredible variety of ideas and expression that millions of people post and watch on YouTube every day around the world.

The battle between Viacom and YouTube has been raging for over three years. More on its history can be found here.

Google was kind enough to provide a link to the U.S. District Court document outlining Google’s victory in legalese.

There are 4 Comments. Add Yours.

Scott
June 23, 2010 at 5:18 pm

That’s wonderful news for Google and Youtube visitors alike!
Daz
June 23, 2010 at 9:05 pm

Thats Super News Viacom And Others Such As Warner Brotheres And MGM Need To See The Int Copyright Act Cant Be Bent To Suite Your Needs The LAWS The LAW And As To Cover All TradeMark Copyright Holders Large Or Small

As The FED JUDGE Ruled Theres Nothing Wrong With TradeMark Copyright Law And It As Been Working For Years

Good On US Judge For Keeping It Simple And To The LAW
Gregory Dennis
June 24, 2010 at 12:45 pm

Viacom should be happy someone is watching their content SOMEWHERE. These people don’t realise that at least someone is VIEWING their content. Yes, it might not be putting cash in their pockets via their ads, but it might entice someone to PURCHASE or DOWNLOAD something for a fee later on.

While I can understand and respect the desire to protect intellectual property and ad revenue, these people live in a tiny little bubble that prevents them from seeing the bigger picture of what networks like these can do for them. Take music, for example, or movies. If someone watches it streaming or downloaded, there is a chance they may like it enough to buy it, but download it for free FIRST to see if they like it. Returns aren’t calculated in their balance sheets, because they only care about how many copies they can ship to stores, and then it’s out of their hands, but if someone buys it and doesn’t like it, then it’s not going to really help anyone except for the content producer, who is credited no matter what, since the unit is sold already.

For a supposedly forward-thinking society, it’s amazing how many executives insist on looking backwards for ways to distribute their products. Why don’t they just bypass stores and that internet fad entirely, and go back to 8-tracks and selling on the street? Laugh if you want, but most large corporations think backwards already, and will probably think it’s a great distribution method. What’s worse is that these people actually possess college degrees and are supposed to be intelligent. What does that tell you about the usefulness of a college education?
Sultan
June 27, 2010 at 11:20 pm

I’m starting to love YouTube much more than before!