Viacom Copyright Detection or Not Lawsuit

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Viacom: Copyright Detection Or Not, Lawsuit...

By: Jordan McCollum
2007-10-18

...Still On! Google unveiled its long-awaited copyright detection system for YouTube earlier this week. But for at least one company...

...its not enough. According to MediaPost, Viacom says the law suit is still on.

"Although he welcomed the technology, Viacom attorney Donald Verrilli then characterized the fix as too little, too late. Wed have been a lot happier if theyd put this in place when they launched, he said during the scheduling conference."

"This week, Mike Fricklas, Viacom General Counsel, offered a slightly more conciliatory response: Were delighted that Google appears to be stepping up to its responsibility and ending the practice of profiting from infringement."

Viacom will continue to pursue the suit seeking past damages:

The new technology obviously has no bearing on the past, Zweig said, adding: And we dont even know if the technology works yet.

"In addition, Googles new content-fingerprinting tool cannot block users from posting potentially infringing content, and it requires that media companies like Viacom spend valuable time and man hours uploading content to Googles database."

Unless Viacom is willing to take that leap of faith required to test the copyright protection tool, personally I dont think they should be laughed out of court. While I understand that many are surprised at the requirement that copyright owners upload their content, really, how else is a tool going to be able to compare uploaded clips to copyrighted ones?

In some ways, its quite similar to Googles policy on using trademarked terms in AdWords ads. You may own the copyright or trademark, but if you want Google to do something about other people using your property in a way that you dont like, youre going to have to file with them.

What do you think? Should Viacom have to jump through Googles hoops, or just get what they want the easy way in the courts?

Update: P. Kevin Smith, Senior Vice President of LTU Technologies tells us that reactive measures are the only way to preserve the spirit of online video sharing. The only way to preemptively or instantly stop copyright infringement would be to limit users ability to upload content, and that would destroy the spirit of what makes these sharing networks successful. In the meantime, the ability to quickly identify unauthorized content " even if still reactive - is the best option for both companies like YouTube and the content owners themselves.

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Tag: Viacom, lawsuit

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About the Author:
Jordan McCollum is a staff writer for the popular marketing blog Marketing Pilgrim. She has worked in search engine optimization with clients including 3M, Little Giant Ladders and ADP. After graduating from Brigham Young University, Jordan joined the SEO copywriting team at the Internet marketing firm 10x Marketing. After 10x closed its doors in December 2006, Jordan became a freelance writer and Internet marketing consultant specializing in SEO. She also has extensive experience with web analytics, conversion rate enhancement and e-mail marketing.


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