I am wondering what Google stockholders are thinking right now about that $443.03 price, which actually dropped -11.72 yesterday as word of a large lawsuit began to spread concerning, Viacom, Google and YouTube. The 32-page complaint cites “massive intentional copyright infringement.†The suit is seeking more than $1 billion in damages, which can’t make Google or its stockholders happy as the company purchased YouTube less than six months ago for $1.65 billion, an astrononmical number considering the risks involved.
The New York Times reports that in the complaint, filed with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Viacom accused YouTube of a “brazen disregard†for the law. “YouTube has harnessed technology to willfully infringe copyrights on a huge scale, depriving writers, composers and performers of the rewards they are owed.†In a second and longer article the suit is quoted again, “YouTube deliberately built up a library of infringing works to draw traffic to the YouTube site, enabling it to gain a commanding market share, earn significant revenues and increase its enterprise value.â€
The Times then published a quote from Google saying they are “confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders.†It added, “We will certainly not let this suit become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube.â€
Uh, they respect copyright holders? Come on, is that even an argument when you can find copywritten work all over that site? Oh, and you won’t let it be a disctraction? Perhaps the -11.72 drop in stock price yesterday will be.
Google asserts that copyright law protects the company, and technicalities are in place that do protect the company, but a lawsuit of this magnitude could change all that. Considering the size of YouTube and the amount of copywritten clips that can be found on the site have got to play some kind of role. At least I would think so.
Word is that last month Viacom demanded that YouTube remove more than 100,000 clips of its programming. MORE THAN 100,000 CLIPS! Yeah, YouTube respects copyright holders rights as long as they monitor their site for their material and then ask for it to be taken down. Thanks YouTube. Yay!
While YouTube is seeking a way to pursue licensing agreements with major media companies, and were even talking with Viacom, there is no excuse for copyright infringement from such a large online source of video that should really know better.
