*cues up trucks full of crow*
Lets see if we'll have to start unloading all this crow. So many dramatic proclamations in this thread. Amazing hindsight too, very impressive. They should've asked Evilbore before they bought youtube.
I can't wait for www.google-viacom.com
It's not hindsight. This was very evident at the time Google made the purchase. I'm not about to PUT UP OR SHUT UP though--I don't believe a worst case scenario will happen. I'm more interested in what sort of legal precedent this sets and what info Viacom derives from the shtuff they got. The ratio of legal to illegal content is kind of the elephant in the room when it comes to Youtube, and it will be very interesting just to see how bad that number is. That number, if properly derived, of course, could also potentially turn up in other hokey internet IP infringement cases. If this somehow destroyed Google, that would just be another positive, though. I'm not getting my hopes up for that.
True, I guess it isn't hindsight, since this kind of a suit can happen to just about any website that hosts user-created/uploaded content in any form. The question was always "when" and not "if"-- the RIAA's antics show how messy it can be when individuals are sought after and now Viacom is showing how vulnerable owners of these sites are. Every site has a disclaimer/contract that washes themselves of violations of every kind, but we're seeing how paper thin those are.
I don't understand why the destruction of google would be a good thing at all...their progressive, user-friendly stance towards everything (is there a single product google offers that you have to pay for?) will keep the internet cool in the future. I don't say that in a "google fanboy" way--I say that because I want all sites to stay open and user-friendly, without having to worry about policing and charging for every last thing a user wants to do. I wouldn't want to pay some kind of copyright fee to use google images or flickr or digg or anything.
So, if the judges ordered them to pay up for every single violation, that would be a very dark day in legal history, imo. Might as well close down the fucking internet, or at least the 2.0 part of it, because these kinds of legal battles will continue to happen (until current twenty-somethings/teens become the judges.) The will of the people is on google/youtube's side. if youtube gets shut down, another vid site will grow to prominence, rinse, wash, repeat (just like torrent sites.)
Viacom is looking like an old giant who refuses to budge. They're just pissed that they (and several of their big media buddies) stood around with their pants around their ankles while the internet grew. If they could have it their way, you would have to paypal them $.50 for every video you watch on youtube. They have this old way of seeing things where every single last copyright violation MUST be accounted for--well, there's no fucking way in hell they can keep track of all that on the internet. If this lawsuit serves its purpose, it will create some precedent that protects owners of 2.0-style sites. Yes, it will be bad for media giants like Viacom, but really, they should have to change to adapt to the new world. Which is to say the world community should not be constrained by outdated media giant business models.
There probably is some conspiracy against google here though. Or at least a bunch of other companies rooting for Viacom-- microsoft and ebay come to mind.
