Mountain View, Calif. – Google (NASD: GOOG) has so far spent $100 million
defending itself against a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuits brought
against it by Viacom in 2007, the company told reporters on its earnings
conference call on Thursday.
A federal judge ruled that Google’s YouTube video
site is protected by "safe harbor" provisions of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that shield a service provider from
infringements committed by end users.
While Viacom has said it plans to appeal
the ruling, Google now plans to start attempting to recover its costs from the
case.
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(AP)
In Canada Viacom would have had to pay all the legal fees for Google. If you are going to bring on a lawsuit like this and loose – you should have to pay. This is the single biggest reason why we do have these kind of lawsuits in Canada. Big media companies are complete fools and want to stick their heads in sand when it comes to the internet. It always makes me think of my favourite Rupert Murdoch quote:
“The internet is poor place to promote a product”