James Delahunty
26 Nov 2006 16:35
Google has been sued for copyright infringement in Paris after a user uploaded a documentary made by a French movie maker to the Google Video service. Flach Film claims that Google acted as a fully responsible publisher when a third party posted "Le monde selon Bush" ("The World According to Bush"). The company alleges that it picked up 43,000 views in a short period of time.
In a recent filing with the US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), Google said it has been the subject of a lawsuit over a video that briefly appeared on its service, but it is unknown if this is the same case the company was referring to or a new one. Many believe that Google could soon face expensive lawsuits over content on its Google Video service and the recently acquired YouTube.
Flach Film said that by enabling access to the documentary for free, Google is clearly violating the country's intellectual property laws. It demands compensation for the unauthorized display of the video, which is distributed to cinemas and is available on DVD. Google claims that the film was removed from the service once the company was aware of the unauthorized copy, adding that uploading "illegal" videos is against the terms and conditions.
Flach Film may believe that it has lost revenue due to the film's brief appearance on Google Video, but one has to wonder just how many of the 43,000 views were actually full views or more importantly, how many of the 43,000 viewers would even know it existed if it wasn't for Google Video?
Source:
PC Advisor