p2pnet - rss feed: Google, Viacom, ‘negotiations’
p2pnet.net news:- Like a some of its users, Google now knows how it feels to be ensnared in a dubious copyright infringement lawsuit.
However, unlike them, Google has more than enough legal and financial resources to meet its aggressors head-on in a fair fight, and on an equal footing.
Viacom figures Google’s alleged inclusion of certain video on YouTube is worth $1 billion but, the lawsuit “strikes at the heart of how the Internet works,” according to Google, says Reuters.
Google, “denied virtually all the claims, including that the popular video-watching site was engaged in “massive intentional copyright infringement,” says the story, quoting it as stating in a filing, “By seeking to make carriers and hosting providers liable for Internet communications, Viacom’s complaint threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and artistic expression”.
The entertainment cartels call ordinary people targeted in infringement lawsuits ‘criminals’ and ‘thieves,’ but Viacom doesn’t seem to have tried to stick that label on Google, which is demanding what so many other people and companies in its position are also demanding: a trial by jury.
“Philip Beck … who argued President George W. Bush’s side in the Florida vote-counting case following the 2000 election, is one of the attorneys from two outside firms named to represent Google,” says Reuters. “The Chicago-based attorney also defended Merck in the Vioxx drug case.”
Both cases are notorious.
“As expected, Google’s defence against allegations of failing to prevent YouTube users from pirating hundreds of thousands of clips from Viacom programming hinges on legal protections afforded by a 1998 copyright protection law, says Reuters, going on, “The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) limits liability for Internet service providers that act quickly to block access to pirated online materials, once the copyright holder notifies a Web site of specific acts of infringement.”
Cynics, “believe this is nought but posturing while the two companies figure out how to best to profitably cash in on users’ enthusiasms to their mutual and individual interests,” p2pnet recently suggested.
But The Economist summed it up far more adequately, to wit, “This war, to paraphrase Carl von Clausewitz, is only the continuation of negotiations by other means.”
And, states Reuters, “In public forums over the past month, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has repeatedly labelled Viacom’s suit as a ‘negotiating tactic’.”
Also See:
Reuters - Google says Viacom lawsuit threat to Internet use, May 1, 2007
p2pnet - Viacom videos: $4.17 each, March 16, 2007
The Economist - Old media sue, March 14, 2007
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