Long awaited, Google has responded to the lawsuit filed by Viacom against YouTube – and they have responded exactly has everyone has predicted. They've taken the common carrier defence provided in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
However, no one's quite sure if that defence will actually work in a court. Google's position is much better then the P2P networks that were charged with copyright violation several years ago – we all remember Napster and Grokster, I'm sure, and the Google powerhouse can more easily defend itself.
The reason, for one, is that YouTube limits the length of video clips that are updated on their site – it's not worth uploading a copyrighted hour long movie in ten little pieces, is it?!
Also, YouTube has a mechanism in place that would remove copyright material when the owner of said copyright has asked, and tools are used to attempt to filter through content to find and eliminate copyrighted materials from being uploaded to start with. However, Viacom argues that these are ineffective and useless, and though they are being updated and worked on right now.
Most believe the biggest argument YouTube has is that their success doesn't rely on copyrighted materials – a study done by Vidmeter.com has shown that less than 10% of the sites most popular video's are copyrighted, meaning that even if they were gone, YouTube would be a successful place. Even if the number is lower, as Viacom accuses, YouTube and sites like it will never go away. Supply and demand. |
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