Viacom sues Google and YouTube
Viacom, a media conglomerate with interests in cable and satellite television networks and movie production and distribution, has sued sued Google and YouTube claiming the popular Goggle’s YouTube engages in ‘massive intentional copyright infringement.’
Per Peter Lattman at the WSJ Law Blog and my source for this post, Viacom claims there are nearly 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom programming on YouTube and that settlement talks with Google and YouTube have been ‘unproductive.’
My guess is we’re just seeing another stage in negotiations with Google’s continuing re-write of American copyright law. Unless Viacom is going to create their own YouTube, there’s likely more value in YouTube having their stuff in return for a revenue share than having Viacom clips sit in a can.