Google and Viacom: Legal Fancy Dancing
October 29, 2008
John Letzing’s “Google Turns Tables on Viacom’s Copyright Cop” is a must read. The story appeared in MarketWatch on October 27, 2008. You can find the full text here. The hook for the story is that Viacom’s copyright analysis service, a firm called Bay TSP, has itself become a issue in the legal matter. Mr. Letzing navigates the legal thickets gracefully. I have simplified the Google thrust as pinning Bay TSP like an insect on a pin. For me the most interesting comment in Mr. Letzing’s write up was:
In its filing, Google complains that BayTSP “remained silent” about the infringement of Viacom’s content on YouTube for a months-long period in late 2006 — then deluged it with more than 100,000 requests to take down infringing material in a single day as a prelude to Viacom’s lawsuit. Google says that it has unsuccessfully negotiated on its own behalf with BayTSP during the past year for the release of its internal documents. “The need for court intervention has become obvious,” Google says in a court filing
Remaining silent is a fancy way of suggesting that Bay TSP did not disclose information when requested through normal legal procedures. When Bay TSP did not cooperate, Google took legal action.
In the big legal matter with Viacom, Google’s position is that it is not in the business of figuring out what videos may or may not violate copyright as users upload videos at the rate of one million a month, which may be a bogus figure. When a potential copyright violation is brought to Google’s attention, Google removes the video. Google’s position as I understand it is that the GOOG complies with applicable copyright regulations. Viacom says Google does not and wants $1.0 billion from Google.
I am finishing a monograph about Google as a publisher. On one hand, I understand the respective viewpoints of Google and Viacom. On the other hand, I think there are a number of examples of Google’s activities in publishing. I am not an attorney, not employed by Google, and not working on this matter for Viacom. I am sitting in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky, thinking about Mr. Letzing’s article.
My conclusion: the GOOG is a clever beastie. But this is a skirmish. The decisive battle is yet to be fought.
Stephen Arnold, October 29, 2008
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
