YouTube Crushes Viacom In Court

According to Google:

Today, 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. The decision follows established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are protected when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them manage their rights online.

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. We’re excited about this decision and look forward to renewing our focus on supporting the incredible variety of ideas and expression that billions of people post and watch on YouTube every day around the world.

Sumner Redstone can hope that Hulu will run his content to get Viacom video sites some traffic. But, he won’t be able to use the $1 billion he planned to get from Google’s YouTube to pay for prime Hulu placement.

Douglas A. McIntyre