YouTube lawsuit threatens the internet, says Google

YouTube owner, Google, is currently battling with media giant, Viacom, over a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit. Viacom complains that the video sharing site consistently allows user to post copyrighted material and that the site operators have done "little or nothing to stop it". In response, Google claims that Viacom's lawsuit "threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information" on the web.

The search engine giant maintains that it has adhered to the requirements of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act and that it responds properly to claims of infringement. Viacom clearly isn't satisfied with its efforts, claiming that it has still identified more than 150,000 unauthorised videos on the site, included those from Viacom-owned MTV and Comedy Central TV channels.

Well, we all know where this is heading really, and Google has stated that it can only see this issue being resolved in court. And the outcome from this legal battle is likely to have msasive implications for the rest of the internet.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) protects website operators from copyright violations posted by users. Google believes its efforts to meet content owners halfway and remove offending posts "goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content owners to protect their works."

If the law is changed, presumably to remove some of that protection, then YouTube would have a serious problem - although pirating TV shows is far from the only thing YouTube is used for (although Viacom refers to it as "a cornerstone of [Google's] business plan"), the amount of effort and resources required to police the system could ultimately make the business unfeasible. That's just the tip of the iceberg: Bit Torrent websites, which copyright owners would also love to see the back of, are build on perfectly legitimate technology - it is only their users that post the links pirated content. Will they be held accountable too?

Why even draw the line at mere copyrighted materials though - perhaps websites should also be held accountable for libellous comments made by users, for threatening or inappropriate forum posts? What if a spam message gets through the spam filters - could the website then be charged for soliciting spam too? I think Viacom is making an important claim that should be aired in court, but the outcome of the case could have very serious consequences for ordinary internet users.

Google (via BBC)

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