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Theories Abound About Why Viacom Went After YouTube

The long-running court battle between Viacom and Google is heating up again now that Viacom has released its summary judgment motion, arguing why Google-owned YouTube deserves to be hung and quartered for hosting user-uploaded videos that infringe copyrights.

"YouTube has proclaimed a 'safe harbor' from liability under USC 512(c) thanks to efforts to respond dutifully to takedown requests," writes The Hollywood Reporter. "But Viacom goes out of its way to present the case that YouTube was founded upon and continues to exist as the result of intentional copyright abuse."

Indeed, "Viacom ... cites internal YouTube memos and emails to argue that YouTube actively encouraged the distribution of infringing content, disqualifying it from immunity under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act," notes The Wall Street Journal. "The 1998 law shields Internet-service providers, Web-hosting companies and other online entities from liability if they meet certain conditions, such as removing content at the request of the copyright holder."

Emails between YouTube's three founders -- Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim -- " at least as presented by Viacom, don't make it sound like YouTube's founders and employees were necessarily worried about depriving content owners of videos they may have rightfully uploaded," writes TechCrunch. "Sometimes, it sounds like they're pretty sure that they weren't authorized, and were just relying on the fact that they didn't have to do anything until they received a takedown notice."

Going way out on a limb, NewTeeVee speculates that, "Maybe the reason Viacom has gone after YouTube so litigiously is because YouTube is 'the one that got away' -- and anyone who's ever had an unrequited crush knows how much it hurts to see something special slip through one's fingers."

Yet, in a new blog post, YouTube Chief Counsel Zahavah Levine does take issue with some of Viacom's accusations towards YouTube, given that Viacom made repeated attempts to acquire YouTube before the Google deal happened, according to NewTeeVee.

Either way, as The Guardian notes, "Experts say [the case's outcome] could redefine the relationship between media and internet companies."

Read the whole story at The Hollywood Reporter et al. »

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