The billion dollar YouTube-Viacom case has finally been resolved, and the winner is … YouTube. In a statement published to its company blog this afternoon, YouTube writes, “the court granted our motion for summary judgment in Viacom’s lawsuit with YouTube. This means that the court has decided that YouTube is protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) against claims of copyright infringement.”
Viacom — in its lawsuit originally filed in 2007 — had claimed that YouTube deliberately infringed on its copyrights and knowingly allowed offending content to remain on its site.
The past few months have seen some intriguing back and forth between the two companies as documents were unsealed. For starters, Viacom detailed communication between Google and YouTube executives that at times appear to show little regard for copyright content. Meanwhile, YouTube accused Viacom of underwriting secret programs that actually placed its content on YouTube but made it impossible for the video giant to enforce copyright.
YouTube goes on to say in their statement that, “This is an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other.” Of course, Viacom could quickly appeal the ruling, and this case could be dragged out for several more years. Stay tuned.
