Viacom International Inc. v. Google, Inc.
Facts:
Plaintiff Viacom International Inc. (Viacom) is one of the world’s largest creators of media content across a variety of platforms including television, Internet, and radio. The media content they are responsible for include television programs, motion pictures, and other venues of entertainment programs. Viacom hold trademarks on various television channels including MTV, Comedy Central, TV Land, VH1, and several more; their motion picture labels include Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, MTV Films, and several more.
Defendant Google operates a website by the name of YouTube which allows for users to upload user created movies for other visitors to the website to search for and view whenever they want free of charge.
Analysis:
Plaintiff Viacom is filing suit under section 106 of the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 101. Plaintiffs have the distinct, severable, and exclusive rights to, among other things, reproduce, publicly perform, and publicly display their copyrighted works. 17 U.S.C. § 106(1)(4)(5).
Users of YouTube have taken it upon themselves to upload entire movies, commercials, and television shows on YouTube for others to search for and view. YouTube also has the feature of allowing users to embed videos on a user’s website but streams the video from YouTube’s database. Google’s own website featured a search mechanism that allowed for users to search videos which return thumbnails of videos that were available on YouTube. Google has not obtained authorization, permission, or a valid license to display registered copyrighted works owned by the Plaintiff on their YouTube service. At the time of the complaint, Google was making efforts to remove content deemed illegal and material that was protected by the Copyright Act. YouTube has a red flag feature that users may click to flag material deemed illegal which will get reported to YouTube’s staff for review but there is a considerable time delay from when a video is flagged and its possible removal from the database during which time more copies may appear with possible slight alterations.
Holdings:
The court holds that Google is found guilty on six counts of copyright infringement including direct copyright infringement – public performance, direct copyright infringement – public display, direct copyright infringement – reproduction, inducement of copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, and vicarious copyright infringement. Plaintiffs are awarded the maximum possible statutory damages in 17 U.S.C. § 504(c) per count ($150,000).
Reference:
http://news.justia.com/cases/featured/new-york/nysdce/1:2007cv02103/302164/
Facts:
Plaintiff Viacom International Inc. (Viacom) is one of the world’s largest creators of media content across a variety of platforms including television, Internet, and radio. The media content they are responsible for include television programs, motion pictures, and other venues of entertainment programs. Viacom hold trademarks on various television channels including MTV, Comedy Central, TV Land, VH1, and several more; their motion picture labels include Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, MTV Films, and several more.
Defendant Google operates a website by the name of YouTube which allows for users to upload user created movies for other visitors to the website to search for and view whenever they want free of charge.
Analysis:
Plaintiff Viacom is filing suit under section 106 of the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 101. Plaintiffs have the distinct, severable, and exclusive rights to, among other things, reproduce, publicly perform, and publicly display their copyrighted works. 17 U.S.C. § 106(1)(4)(5).
Users of YouTube have taken it upon themselves to upload entire movies, commercials, and television shows on YouTube for others to search for and view. YouTube also has the feature of allowing users to embed videos on a user’s website but streams the video from YouTube’s database. Google’s own website featured a search mechanism that allowed for users to search videos which return thumbnails of videos that were available on YouTube. Google has not obtained authorization, permission, or a valid license to display registered copyrighted works owned by the Plaintiff on their YouTube service. At the time of the complaint, Google was making efforts to remove content deemed illegal and material that was protected by the Copyright Act. YouTube has a red flag feature that users may click to flag material deemed illegal which will get reported to YouTube’s staff for review but there is a considerable time delay from when a video is flagged and its possible removal from the database during which time more copies may appear with possible slight alterations.
Holdings:
The court holds that Google is found guilty on six counts of copyright infringement including direct copyright infringement – public performance, direct copyright infringement – public display, direct copyright infringement – reproduction, inducement of copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, and vicarious copyright infringement. Plaintiffs are awarded the maximum possible statutory damages in 17 U.S.C. § 504(c) per count ($150,000).
Reference:
http://news.justia.com/cases/featured/new-york/nysdce/1:2007cv02103/302164/