Today, another nine exhibits from the Viacom-YouTube were released, and while Google will no doubt get around to spinning the documents its own way, Viacom has already had a go. The entertainment company highlighted four rather incriminating quotes this afternoon.
Here’s what may be the most damning one, attributed to a senior Google employee: "YouTube’s business model is completely sustained by pirated content."
Before Google acquired YouTube, Google employees also stated, "YouTube’s content is all free, and much of it is highly sought after pirated clips," and "we should beat YouTube by improving features and user experience, not being a ‘rogue enabler’ of content theft."
Then this final excerpt comes from a presentation sent to Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt: "We may be able to coax or force access to viral premium content . . . Threaten a change in copyright policy . . . use threat to get standard deal sign-up."
If you feel like looking for more quotes of this nature – or seeking out ones that work in Google’s favor – well, good luck. The nine documents total 232 pages, which helps illustrate how this has become a very expensive case for both Viacom and YouTube, with armies of lawyers involved.
