The Great American Patent Caper |
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Last October, Google purchased YouTube, a popular site used to upload videos. This means that Google is the parent company or owner of YouTube. Viacom, a huge media company, decided to file a lawsuit against Google for violating patent laws by putting program clips online without permission. They are asking for over one billion dollars and a court order stopping YouTube from any further infringements. Viacom says that when Google bought YouTube, they intentionally broke patent law. Viacom believes that because Google wanted more people to visit YouTube, they allowed copyrighted video clips to be uploaded. The law states that companies can’t make money from other people’s copyrighted materials. The complaint states, “YouTube deliberately built up a library of infringing works to draw traffic to the YouTube site, enabling it to gain a commanding market share, earn significant revenues.…” Viacom filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in New York City. Viacom wants to be paid by Google for the right to use these video clips. Additionally, the lawsuit states that Viacom now has to waste time reviewing YouTube for protected video clips, which takes many hours and costs lots of money. Many people did not see this as a surprise. They remembered when music companies went after Napster, a free music Internet site, that allowed for the free file-sharing and downloading of music. This resulted in a loss of money for the holders of the copyrighted music. NBC has also sent a letter to Google complaining that many of its shows are on YouTube. NBC said if Google does not filter these unauthorized clips, they will also sue.
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