YouTube sued for $1 Bn by Viacom

[Kapitan_Phillips]

You know Google can come back saying that users accept an agreement when they register not to upload copyrighted material, and considering how many videos are uploaded every day and the sheer amount of traffic, it'd be nigh-on impossible to police it all instantaneously.

[PeriscopeDepth]

I can understand Viacom's bitching if people are putting whole episodes up, but I can't see what the trouble is with clips?

PD

[Kazuaki Shimazaki II]

Originally Posted by PeriscopeDepth

I can understand Viacom's bitching if people are putting whole episodes up, but I can't see what the trouble is with clips?

PD

Guy 1 puts up first five minutes. Guy 2 puts up last 5 minutes. Guy 3 puts up the 5-minute climax. Before you know it can assemble most of the meat of a film.

Taking clips is part of fair use, but generally IIRC you need some purpose. You can parody it, criticize it ... etc. But just putting something up probably does not qualify.

For that, though, I don't see major potential for a significant loss in sales (commercial damage). It is often good advertisement, as some cynical Hollywood top leadership know and try to use.

My sympathies are w/ Google, Youtube and the guys posting on this one.

[Letum]

Apperantly there is not much of a case against google due to their recent moves to prevent copyright infringement.