Quote from JimB on 10/18/06 at 10:56am:It was only a matter of time that the video sharing services saw the same repurcussions of the music sharing services. Only question now is will the companies go after those who downloaded material like the music industry did?
Well, if VIACOM's "order" to YouTube is any indication, then you may soon have the answer to your question.
Quote from Carmine_Difazio on 10/16/06 at 7:24pm:Chris:
After the announcement of the purchase of Youtube by Google I read a follow up article saying that the Youtube website planned a software filtering to identify potentially unauthorized materials (copyright materials used w/o the consent of the manufacturers) for review, editing, and exclusion from the site.
My sense is that this video, and possibly others, was voluntarily and/or involuntarily removed in preparation for the software upgrade to the site.
Carmine D.
After several months of "business" negotiations with no settlement, VIACOM is "ordering" Google/YouTube to cease and desist 100,000 videos of copyrighted and patented VIACOM materials. And asserts the filtering device is not in place/does not do what it was supposed to do.
I don't know yet the exact details of VIACOM's "order" and the punitive damages it plans to recover. I suspect huge dollar numbers are likely. Fortunately for YouTube, Google has deep pockets. Unfortunately for Google, litigants always go after other litigants who have the deepest pockets.
Carmine D.