Viacom revived its $1 billion battle against Google over copyright abuse, arguing that US business will be stifled if a lower-court decision in favor of Google-owned YouTube is allowed to stand.
The cable channel giant, which owns Comedy Central and MTV, yesterday appealed a June ruling regarding Google’s YouTube posting thousands of pirated TV clips on the site.
The lower court found that YouTube is not infringing on Viacom’s copyright by hosting episodes of, for instance, “The Daily Show,” so long as YouTube removes the copyrighted clips when notified.
Viacom’s main bone of contention is that YouTube was established with the express intent to host such illegal content, rather like peer-to-peer site Grokster. Viacom suggests that the judge in question ignored the Grokster case. Grokster was shut down in 2005 after a Supreme Court ruling that held the site was responsible for the actions.
A handful of other major media companies are expected to file in support of Viacom’s position next week, according to sources.
“We regret that Viacom continues to drag out this case. The court here, like every other court to have considered the issue, correctly ruled that the law protects online services like YouTube, which remove content when notified by the copyright holder that it is unauthorized. We will strongly defend the court’s decision on appeal,” Google said.
