It was only a matter of time before a big media company went after Google and it’s only video subsidiary YouTube.
Viacom, the parent company of MTV, has filed a $1 Billion copyright infringement lawsuit in US District Court. Their claim is that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom’s shows have been available and have been viewed over 1.5 Billion times. Viacom also wants and injunction in order to prohibit “GooTube” from further infringement.
This is obviously a case of “If you can’t Join ‘em, Sue ‘em”. Viacom and Google probably couldn’t come to an agreement that worked for both sides, so Viacom wasn’t about to walk away without money in hand.
They do have a valid point, but I think it’s wiser to partner with Google at this point rather than to become an enemy. The community has spoken - social media sites like YouTube and Myspace have become the preferred way to communicate and share media. There is a ton of marketing value there and these big media companies need to figure out a way to work within that space.
Time will only tell what other companies are going to slap Google with a lawsuit. With $11 Billion in cash on hand, Google is a target for companies looking to get their due on their legally protected content.
