Dang it. Can't. We're talking about googlag. Again.
ViaCom has sued googlag, owner of youtube, over copyright infringement as defined in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This act pertains an awful lot to stuff posted on the internet. Like videos on youtube.
ViaCom claims that their copyrighted material appears too much on youtube. Content like ViaCom's "SpongeBob SquarePants," "South Park" and "MTV Unplugged", and 150,000 unauthorized clips of other copyrighted programming.
So, ViaCom sued googlag to the tune of one billion dollars. ViaCom claims that youtube isn't acting in good faith to remove that copyrighted content.
The company said its count of unauthorized clips represents only a fraction of the content on YouTube that violates its copyrights.
It said Google and YouTube had done "little or nothing" to stop infringement.
Googlag and youtube, of course, deny the allegation.
In papers submitted to a judge late Friday, Google said YouTube "goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content owners to protect their works."
It said that by seeking to make carriers and hosting providers liable for Internet communications, Viacom "threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and artistic expression."
Did you catch that? The cognitive dissonance from one sentence to the next? But the money quote is, 'Threatens... legitimate.... information exchange.'
And that, boys n girls, is how the court will redefine 'ownership' on the internet. Mark my words.
You can help stem the tide, though. How? Don't be evil. Don't use googlag.
