Viacom Slaps Google With $1 billion Lawsuit

this does sound a lot like the same thing napster went through

is this because of youtube? :!:

woop dee doo, this is pocket change for google

You had to see this coming - Google must get about 100 lawsuits a day.

What a crock. How can they justify 1B in losses??

This is probably one of those "it was only a matter of time" things. Be interesting to see how the result pans out.

hey john, maybe the shares of google will go down and sally will b able to buy a few of them!

It looks like google has a challenge!! :twisted:

"Viacom" is still showing up as the first search listing on Google, be interesting to see if they lower it down to the Supplemental Result area.

Interesting suit, and I'm not surprised. But Google won’t sue the uploaders; they’re obviously the meat and potatoes of the YouTube environment.

All in all, I'm not certain this lawsuit will amount to too much in and of itself. Most likely, Google will remove the videos in accordance with the DMCA Safe Harbor Provisions and won't be held legally liable.

However, Viacom could actually request that YouTube identify the email addresses and IP addresses of those who illegally uploaded the Viacom material, and sue them - like the Recording Industry Association of America does.

However, I, myself, see there to be much better and more profitable ways in which to go about this. Let's see if they can find those ways on their own.

Shine on,
Aaron

When there are company that have success, their must ready from outside the world problem ;)

WHAT?!? That's crap. Go after the people that are putting it up there.

Google's response should be simple enough. I see your billion dollars and raise you and "anything" Viacom related being completely delisted from Google.

That would shut Viacom up fast if they had any brains about them. If you don't exist on Google, you don't exist. Shutter their asses back to the stone age and see how they like it. Google has a huge hammer it can wield if it so chooses.

YES!

YES!

YES!

I love shorting google.

Is the the beginning of end of web 2.0 bubble?

bankrupt google! :twisted:

take em down a billion at a time

I think Viacom is just out for a free payday. All they are doing is giving Youtube and Google more press time. Its funny how they feel exploited and they have problem made more money since Youtube has been in existence

This is a huge bonehead move on Viacom's part. They are suing the very company that gives them all the free advertising for their product that they could ask for and then some.
It was posted upthread, and I agree, that the best thing for companies to do is to leverage Youtube for the networking phenom that it is...don't try to buck the trend, use it to your advantage.
Maybe I should work in the marketing dept. at Viacom?

Google has plenty of $ and they will eventually work out some sort of deal where both parties are happy.

I urge y'all to read Larry Lessig's blog post about this. He provides some commentary on why Viacom is going after Google/YouTube instead of just lobbying Congress like they've done in the past.

I thought a post on my blog that linked to this post will automatically show up here. It turned out there is some delay. :lol: Could that because John needs to approve it first? :???:

Viacom needs something right now. Might as well sue the most popular video site on the planet. :roll:

I am sure that Google wont have a problem with this one, but it's fun to see how the Google stock trembles. ;)