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Google CEO goes on offensive against Viacom

13 July 2007 5:59 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 8 comments

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, speaking with reporters at a hotel bar at the 25th annual Allen & Co. moguls meeting, said litigation was the foundation of the company that owns the MTV Networks, Paramount movies studio and video game developer Harmonix.

"Viacom is a company built from lawsuits, look at their history," Schmidt said on early Friday.

Schmidt's comments refer to an antitrust suit Viacom filed against Time Warner Inc. in 1989 regarding their HBO cable channel, which was eventually settled out of court for $75 million and an agreement to buy a cable system from Viacomm above market value. In addition, as part of the settlement Time Warner began making the Viacom owned Showtime channel available on more Time Warner cable systems.

Viacom has demanded that YouTube takes down thousands of segments from its popular programs including The Daily Show with John Stewart, The Colbert Report and South Park.

Schmidt said the closing off of social networks was a "transient" phase and that these companies will eventually see the value of open borders.

Source: Reuters

Permalink to this article

Striking Daily Show writer finds new audience on YouTube (16 November 2007)

Viacom puts 13,000 Daily Show clips online (19 October 2007)

YouTube finally has their anti-piracy tools in place (15 October 2007)

Google lawyers seek testimony from comedians in YouTube case (14 August 2007)

Google doesn't deny its interest in mobile phones (3 August 2007)

Japanese groups join YouTube bashing (2 August 2007)

YouTube expects anti-piracy tech in September (27 July 2007)

Viacom chairman responds to Google remarks (13 July 2007)

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Discuss this article!
BIGnewb (Inactive) 13 July 2007 6:07
Viacom are bunch of punks like the MPAA and RIAA [ + quote]
c1c (Member) 13 July 2007 7:48
they just want to make sure that us peons are watching commercials every 7 minutes and now I a gillette 3 mach razor and geico, but i did really save a lot of money on my car insurance. [ + quote]
anubis66 (AfterDawn Addict) 13 July 2007 9:28
accually, its every 5 minutes, with atleast 2 minutes of ads. not to mention a commercial before and after the title opener for shows, each a mimimum 2 or 3 minutes. shows are only like 15 minutes long now.. [ + quote]
mododaz (Junior Member) 13 July 2007 16:22
*Originally posted by anubis66:* accually, its every 5 minutes, with atleast 2 minutes of ads. not to mention a commercial before and after the title opener for shows, each a mimimum 2 or 3 minutes. shows are only like 15 minutes long now.. in the u.k i timed it 6 mins ad 6mins show suck huw i hate viacom [ + quote]
oofRome (Senior Member) 13 July 2007 23:19
and yet the 3 shows in question mention youtube all the time. rediculous. [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 17 July 2007 16:35
*Quote:* Schmidt said the closing off of social networks was a "transient" phase and that these companies will eventually see the value of open borders. I hope what he said is right. [ + quote]
O_C_FReaK (Newbie) 21 July 2007 19:58
*Quote:* Schmidt said the closing off of social networks was a "transient" phase and that these companies will eventually see the value of open borders. Agree.Though Google has its own important issues to solve,like its data retention policies over Net users info,they are right here in my opinion. [ + quote]
Unfocused (Junior Member) 16 August 2007 7:14
So, basically, they are saying that their prime focus is lawsuits? Customers and their needs come second to that? [ + quote]