AfterDawn: Tech news

Google had to spend $100 million to defend against Viacom suit

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Jul 2010 3:49 User comments (5)

Google had to spend $100 million to defend against Viacom suit According to Google CFO Patrick Pichetter, the search giant had to spend about $100 million to defend itself from Viacom's $1 billion copyright lawsuit against video giant YouTube.
It is important to note that the case did not even make it to trial so the expected attorney's fees would likely have been much higher.

Last month, a judge threw out the case, saying Google was protected under the DMCA's "safe harbor" provision.

Viacom has promised an appeal, but their chances of a victory seem slim, at best.

"Safe Harbor" protects sites such as YouTube from being sued for copyright infringement, as long as they are actively taking down infringing material when asked by content holders. In his judgement, the judge pointed to a day when Viacom gave Google a takedown notice with 100,000 URLs, and the site took down all the videos within 24 hours.

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5 user comments

117.7.2010 17:40

who cares. 100M is just a drop in the bucket for google

218.7.2010 00:39

Originally posted by Ryoohki:
who cares. 100M is just a drop in the bucket for google
Guess the real question is how much did Viacom spend to lose the case?

319.7.2010 01:35
llongtheD
Inactive

Didn't even make it to trial and they spent 100 million on attorney's fees? All of these lawyers, and all of these lawsuits make this country so much better don't they?

419.7.2010 17:12

100 mil that they will likely recover from viacom.

520.7.2010 03:01

Originally posted by llongtheD:
Didn't even make it to trial and they spent 100 million on attorney's fees? All of these lawyers, and all of these lawsuits make this country so much better don't they?
It is unfortunate, but that is how corporations work. The whole point of this lawsuit was to waist the time and money of google. Meanwhile, Viacom is stealing media from google and posting it on their own sites...so we might see the mirror of this lawsuit sometime soon.

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