Artful dodger Eric Schmidt spoke publicly about Google's defense of the $1 billion lawsuit Viacom lobbed at the search giant in March. There were few revelations from the canny Google CEO, who
repeatedly cited the Digital Millenium Copyright Act as the search giant's core defense against the allegations of copyright infringement. But there was more than a hint of condescension in Schmidt's
assertion that the $1 billion suit "was probably just a mistake." Err, how do you mean?
"Had they simply waited, the tools would have been available," he added, when a Wall Street
Journal reporter asked, "Why should Viacom have to wait?" Why, indeed. Schmidt only said: "From a legal perspective, we met the terms of the law."
"It's really about the DMCA.
It's pretty clear that there's a safe haven for sites like ours," Schmidt says. The DMCA protects Web sites where users upload content from copyright infringement violation, as long as it's removed at
the copyright holder's request. Viacom knows this--what it wants is for the Supreme Court to have the DMCA overturned. The flip side is that digital rights laws could also be rendered in Google's
favor.
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