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Viacom v. YouTube
More than 150 years ago, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story found that copyright and patent cases come 'nearer than any other class of cases belonging to forensic discussions, to what may be called the metaphysics of the law where the distinctions are, or at least may be, very subtile [sic] and refined, and, sometimes, almost evanescent.' See, Folsom v. Marsh, 9 F. Cas. 342, 344 (C.C.D. Mass. 1841).
It is likely that the type of issues Justice Story had in mind will be at the center of the lawsuit Viacom, and related entities ('Viacom'), initiated against YouTube, Inc., YouTube, LLC and Google Inc. ('YouTube') on March 13, 2007. In February of this year, Viacom provided YouTube with 'take down notices' for removal of all of its copyright protected content after the two parties failed to reach a distribution agreement following months of negotiation. The suit that followed alleges, among other things, that 'YouTube has harnessed technology to willfully infringe copyrights on a huge scale, depriving writers, composers and performers of the rewards that are owed for effort and innovation, reducing the incentives of America's creative industries, and profiting from the illegal conduct of others as well.' Moreover, the suit states that 'YouTube's brazen disregard of the intellectual property laws fundamentally threatens not just Plaintiffs but the economic underpinnings of one of the most important sectors of the United States economy.' Viacom alleges that it has identified more than 150,000 copies of infringing materials posted on YouTube which have collectively been viewed over 1.5 billion times. Google Inc., recent YouTube acquirer, has not historically been a stranger to claims that it engages in copyright infringement by the likes of its Google Web Search, Google News, Google Video, Google Image Search and Google Book Search projects, and it appears that its YouTube acquisition has engendered more of the same comments about its cavalier attitude toward others' intellectual property rights.
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