New filings provided to the court in their billion dollar dispute over YouTube show Google calling Viacom a hazard to how the Internet works.
In YouTube’s brief history, it has been suggested that without the uploading of copyrighted content to the video sharing site, it never could have gained dominance of the video market or a multi-billion dollar deal from Google.
Hindering its operations with policing requirements above and beyond what the Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires means more than keeping clips from “Family Guy” out of the reach of YouTube viewers. Google suggested Viacom threatened the very fabric of the Internet, Yahoo News noted.
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.”
Under current law, the onus for finding and reporting copyright infringement falls upon the content owner. The DMCA provides a “safe harbor” provision for Internet services that requires the rights holder to request removal of infringing content.
The explosion of video available online, on YouTube and elsewhere, means the DMCA imposes a continually ongoing requirement of a copyright owner to police the Internet for infringement. Viacom isn’t happy with this role, their lawsuit stemming from a desire to switch the policing role back to YouTube and others, in spite of the existing law.
