Viacom Sues Youtube for Videos it Uploaded

[agalisgv]

Viacom has been in court for years suing Youtube for copyright violations of shows that end up on the video site. Now it appears that Viacom actually was the one who uploaded those videos themselves.

For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately "roughed up" the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko's to upload clips from computers that couldn't be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt "very strongly" that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.

Viacom's efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2...-yourself.html


Viacom tried to acquire Youtube awhile ago, but was unsuccessful. Some are wondering if that unsuccessful bid may be behind the current lawsuits.

It’s hard to tell whether this was an intentional plot against YouTube, or if this is a case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing.

http://www.webmaster-source.com/2010...it-being-there

[siouxdonym]

Ah corrupt corporate business practices, isn't that novel? Glad this is coming to light.

[Buzz]

I am all for copyright protection. However, if Viacom is the one who uploaded the videos to begin with not sure why they are suing except maybe to have the videos pulled.

[Autumm_wind]

However, if Viacom is the one who uploaded the videos to begin with not sure why they are suing except maybe to have the videos pulled.

The first thing that comes to my mind is wanting both the free promo and the money from the lawsuit.

Now, off to actually read the article. Thank you for posting, agalisgv.

[agalisgv]

In court today, a federal judge ruled in favor of YouTube against Viacom. (YouTube is owned by Google). Viacom has vowed to appeal.

A federal judge handed Google Inc. a major victory Wednesday by rebuffing media company Viacom Inc.'s attempt to collect more than $1 billion in damages for the alleged copyright abuses of Google's popular YouTube service.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton in New York embraces Google's interpretation of a 12-year-old law that shields Internet services from claims of copyright infringement as long as they promptly remove illegal content when notified of a violation.

...Viacom, the owner of popular cable channels such as MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, called Stanton's decision "fundamentally flawed" and vowed to appeal. That virtually ensures a legal brawl that already has dragged on for more than three years will spill into 2011 and perhaps beyond.

...In dismissing the lawsuit before a trial, Stanton noted that Viacom had spent several months accumulating about 100,000 videos violating its copyright and then sent a mass takedown notice on Feb. 2, 2007. By the next business day, Stanton said, YouTube had removed virtually all of them.

Stanton said there's no dispute that "when YouTube was given the (takedown) notices, it removed the material."

...Kent Walker, Google's general counsel, said the company is confident Stanton's decision will hold up. The 30-page ruling is "thoughtful, thorough and well-considered," Walker said in an interview. He also hailed the decision as "a victory for a new generation of creators and artists eager to showcase their work online," Walker said.

Facebook, eBay Inc. and Yahoo Inc. were among the Internet companies that had backed Google in its battle with Viacom.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_623256.html

[CoolGuy]

Here are some more gems:

A Viacom VP even complained about the "****ing assholes" at YouTube—because the company "enforced its repeat-infringer policy concerning a Viacom marketing account that had received multiple take-down notices from Viacom's legal department." The lulz, they are here in spades.

Viacom top brass wrote e-mails with more exclamation points than my niece would even consider decent. They also had what Google calls an "obsession" with buying YouTube.

Case in point: "I WANT TO OWN YOUTUBE. I think it's critical, and if it goes to a competitor.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" That was from MTV Networks head Judy McGrath.

Viacom CEO Tom Freston wrote, "If we get UTube… I wanna run it." McGrath responded, "You'll have to kill me to get to it first."

(the bold one is my favorite)

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...gets-dirty.ars

[MOIJTO]

Money makes the world go round!

[Quintuple]

Geez. That's ridiculous. I always wonder how upper management get there without being to form sentences or communicate strategically. Blech. This besides all the "we're suing you for something we did ourselves in a back-handed attempt to take you over" crap.

[PeterG]

My first thought was anybody vs. youtube....and I'll side with youtube. The only bad thing about the youtube is the amount of time it steals from me each day.