Viacom v. YouTube, Unsealed
Newly public court documents reveal details of $1 billion copyright fight.
March 17, 2010 at 08:00 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.com
A federal judge presiding over Viacom's $1 billion copyright suit against YouTube unsealed a ream of sensitive documents in the case Thursday.
Viacom sued YouTube in 2005, claiming that 160,000 Viacom-owned clips had been posted on YouTube without permission, and that YouTube was aware of their existence on the site and failed to take them down.
In response, YouTube officials took to their official blog to highlight some aspects of the case. YouTube claims Viacom itself was uploading its own content to YouTube with the aid of “no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies,” and going to such lengths as using untraceable computers at Kinko's to post the videos or roughing up the video quality so they would appear stolen or leaked. YouTube also points out that Viacom tried to buy YouTube on more than one occasion.
In its legal filings, Viacom cites an e-mail exchange between YouTube co-founders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, which suggests they were aware YouTube was hosting copyrighted material without permission. The San Francisco Chronicle's Tech Chronicles blog quotes from one e-mail from Chen to Hurley and Karim: “We're going to have a tough time defending the fact that we're not liable for the copyrighted material on the site because we didn't put it up when one of the co-founders is blatantly stealing content from other sites and trying to get everyone to see it.”
To read more about the case and the unsealed documents, read the AP story here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jqPDbEZE37d05XQdeZqOq_0e5mgwD9EH8AH80
A federal judge presiding over Viacom's $1 billion copyright suit against YouTube unsealed a ream of sensitive documents in the case Thursday.
Viacom sued YouTube in 2005, claiming that 160,000 Viacom-owned clips had been posted on YouTube without permission, and that YouTube was aware of their existence on the site and failed to take them down.
In response, YouTube officials took to their official blog to highlight some aspects of the case. YouTube claims Viacom itself was uploading its own content to YouTube with the aid of “no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies,” and going to such lengths as using untraceable computers at Kinko's to post the videos or roughing up the video quality so they would appear stolen or leaked. YouTube also points out that Viacom tried to buy YouTube on more than one occasion.
In its legal filings, Viacom cites an e-mail exchange between YouTube co-founders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, which suggests they were aware YouTube was hosting copyrighted material without permission. The San Francisco Chronicle's Tech Chronicles blog quotes from one e-mail from Chen to Hurley and Karim: “We're going to have a tough time defending the fact that we're not liable for the copyrighted material on the site because we didn't put it up when one of the co-founders is blatantly stealing content from other sites and trying to get everyone to see it.”
To read more about the case and the unsealed documents, read the AP story here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jqPDbEZE37d05XQdeZqOq_0e5mgwD9EH8AH80
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