Google and Viacom settle copyright dispute
Google and global media company Viacom have settled a seven-year billion-dollar copyright dispute over clips uploaded to video-sharing website YouTube.
The out-of-court settlement, announced today, March 18, brings to a close a dispute that first came to the fore in 2007.
Viacom, which owns the Paramount film studios and cable networks including MTV, filed a lawsuit accusing Google, which owns YouTube, of violating its copyright by allowing users to upload unauthorised clips of its films and TV shows.
Viacom was seeking a $1 billion dollar pay-out from Google, claiming that shows including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and South Park had been uploaded to YouTube without authorisation and viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
But, in a statement on the Viacom website, it said both companies had “jointly announced” a resolution.
"This settlement reflects the growing collaborative dialogue between our two companies on important opportunities, and we look forward to working more closely together," the statement said.
The terms of the deal were kept secret but the BBC reported it believed no money had changed hands.
It brings to a close a dispute that has been heard in the US courts three times in three years.
After each hearing, Google and YouTube were deemed to have complied with US copyright law under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by removing infringing videos when asked to do so by a rights holder.
The case was first dismissed by New York District Court Judge Louis Stanton in 2010.
Viacom appealed against the decision and the case was referred to the US Court of Appeals.
That court agreed with Stanton but referred the case back for further consideration after ruling that emails between executives at the company could lead a jury to find that YouTube was aware of infringing activity.
But, in a decision published in April last year, Stanton dismissed the argument as “extravagant” and said that as more than 24 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube each minute, it would be impossible to be aware of the contents.
Viacom was expected to appeal against that decision prior to today’s settlement.
