Viacom Sues Google and YouTube

Google just can't seem to do anything right lately. Today all the news is about Viacom's suit seeking $1 billion in damages from Google and YouTube for international copyright infringement.

Viacom has been complaining for some time about YouTube and Google posting their programming online. This suit by Viacom is the largest so far by traditional media. Viacom filed the suit in the U.S. District court of New York, and according to an article by Jeremy Peters of the NYT, accused Google of "brazen disregard for the law." According to Viacom, Google has infringed on the rights of writers, composers and performers and deprived them of their just rewards.

YouTube recently removed over 100,000 videos because of Viacom demands. Viacom also claims that over 160,000 clips have been on YouTube with more than 1.5 billion views. That's a lot of damage if the courts rule in Viacom's favor, what will be interesting is the precedent set in the valuation of these clips if any.

Google also responded with a statement (by their experienced poet killer lawyers no doubt) saying they are confident YouTube has acted properly and that they are still growing and strong. Ugh! That rings of the Enron comments right before they vanished. Actually, this is standard procedure in an unveiled attempt to keep stocks high by any publicly held company I am sure.

Even so, Google stock dropped $11.72 according to MarketWatch. I almost feel sorry for Google, as they seem to be the target of so many lawsuits these days. If I didn't know better I would say they are just being picked on because of all their money. You have to just wonder who is watching the store sometimes though. 160,000 videos is not just mashing up some photos after all, and recent branding and trademark issues make someone look pretty stupid in my book.

For Google's sake, I hope there are some people looking outside the windows to see if it is raining before planning the next picnic.

Chart courtesy: NYT, MarketWatch, BigCharts.com