The Youtube/Viacom Courtcase.

[DJ]

Viacom on Tuesday slapped YouTube and parent company Google with a lawsuit, accusing the wildly popular video-sharing site of "massive intentional copyright infringement" and seeking more than $1 billion in damages.

And yesterday I read that the Court has ordered youtube to show to the court Every single video anyone of youtube has watched ever.

Thats basically Insane.8 hours of viewing material are uploaded every minute and each gets a least over 10 views.And hell knows how many videos are on youtube.

Also dosn't this break Privacy Law?I mean people should be allowed to watch what ever they want-the service is their so why not use it?

Whats are your thoughts on this matter?

 

[Slyfox696]

the service is their so why not use it?

That's Viacom's point. The service IS there, and since people upload material to Youtube that is copyrighted, Youtube then is responsible for breaking copyright laws.

I understand Viacom's point, I really do. However, Youtube takes very strong steps to protect against copyrighting, and since Youtube is so massive, AND is protected by the 1st amendment, they have the right to host videos that amateurs wish to display online.

In my opinion, as long as Youtube writes disclaimers for users to not upload copyrighted material (which they do), and as long as they are actively taking down copyrighted material (which they do), I really don't think Viacom is in the right here. I think instead, they should go after the users who illegally upload the material to Youtube in the first place. Of course, no one is going to do that, because a) no one wants to be the big bully like the RIAA has become, and b) because it's much too difficult and expensive to keep suing individual users, and much more cost effective to sue the large company with a lot of money.