Lawsuit
Yahoo, Facebook, EBay urge end to Viacom YouTube suit
Yahoo! Inc., IAC/InterActiveCorp, EBay Inc. and Facebook Inc. urged a judge to dismiss Viacom Inc.'s copyright-infringement lawsuit against Google Inc.'s YouTube video-sharing website.
The four Internet companies filed friend-of-the-court legal briefs on behalf of YouTube yesterday in Manhattan federal court, where a judge is weighing YouTube’s and Viacom’s legal motions in the 2007 lawsuit.
"Plaintiffs' legal arguments, if accepted, would retard the development of the Internet and electronic commerce," Asim Bhansali, an attorney representing the four companies, said in the brief.
Viacom, which owns MTV Networks and the Paramount film studio, claimed YouTube displayed 63,000 copyrighted works on its video-sharing website without authorization. In March, New York-based Viacom asked U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton for a summary judgment ruling in its favor.
YouTube, also seeking summary judgment from Stanton, said it's protected by the safe-harbor provision of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which states that a service provider isn't liable for infringement if it removes material from its site when notified by the copyright owner.
No Threat
"The courts have been clear that creating and building a web-based business on the intellectual property of others is illegal. That is exactly what YouTube did in its formative years," Kelly McAndrew, a Viacom spokeswoman, said in an e- mailed statement. "Nothing in this case threatens the principles of the DMCA or the ability of legitimate Internet- based businesses to flourish."
The Internet companies’ brief also was filed for a similar case, brought by the Football Association Premier League Ltd. against YouTube for allegedly infringing copyrights on broadcasts of British soccer matches.
Viacom's Class B shares rose 81 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $33.58 at 12:18 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Google, based in Mountain View, California, gained $11.03, or 2.3 percent, to $486.50 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
The Viacom case is Viacom International Inc. v. YouTube, 07-2103, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The soccer case is The Football Association Premier League Limited v. YouTube, 07-3582, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Published by Bloomberg – May 27, 2010)