A back-and-forth battle is brewing between Internet search giant Google and media giant Viacom. Both companies are taking aggressive legal shots against each other after Viacom filed a copyright claim against Google’s YouTube service.
Google has fired back, saying Viacom illegally uploaded videos to YouTube, according to documents filed with U.S. District Court in New York.
In 2007, Viacom took action against YouTube, alleging the company infringed on its television network, including MTV, Comedy Central, Black Entertainment Television, and others. Viacom also contended videos infringed on movies owned by its Paramount Pictures subsidiary.
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The clash between the two giants came after Viacom failed to acquire YouTube for $1.65 billion. Viacom, according to court documents, also attempted to create a content-sharing partnership with YouTube, but after months of negotiations Google announced it was acquiring YouTube. Viacom also offered to be a copurchaser, according to Google.
Google acquired the Internet video service in October 2006 and said it believes Viacom is taking legal action out of desperation and after repeatedly trying to purchase YouTube.
The search giant also charged that Viacom went so far as to hire more than a dozen marketing agencies to upload its content to YouTube. As a result, Viacom wasn’t able to tell which content was uploaded with or without authorization and had to eliminate nearly 500 claims from its complaint, Google said.
The fight over whether YouTube is a hands-off provider is critical to fending off charges of copyright infringement, according to Ilan Barzilay, a partner with Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
“The copyright laws allow Internet service providers and similar entities a ‘safe harbor’ for infringement allegations,” he said. “If the provider doesn’t knowingly allow or assist acts of infringement, it won’t be held liable for the acts of its users.”
The intent of this protection is to relieve providers of…