Discussed in Class: Viacom v. Google

As discussed in class last week, Viacom is suing Google for $1 billion dollars. As owner of many popular television networks, including Comedy Central, many clips produced by Viacom appear on You Tube. Our class discussion involved a debate with half of the class arguing for Google and the other half arguing for Viacom. I can empathize with the position of both companies. Viacom is in the business of producing television shows. Viacom expects sole profit for the work they create, and Google is earning advertising profits (some of Viacom's shows are the most viewed clips on YouTube) on Viacom's copyrighted material. Google, however, is complying with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. You Tube must take clips of copyrighted material down, if asked to do so by the copyright holder. In the past, as Viacom asked Google to remove clips from YouTube, Google complied.

It is clear that problem is in the law. A copyright holder should be responsible for patrolling the internet to ensure that copyrighted material is not being used beyond fair use. The problem will likely only get worse as the web becomes more of a web 2.0. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act must keep up with changing technology. While reading the required blogs for class, I came across an article entitled Congress Must Make Clear Copyright Laws on Slashdot. The author of the article takes the stance that clips on YouTube are likely fair use, but agrees that Congress must clarify the law. It seems as if Google is protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for now. The law will surely need to be clarified, however, as other internet related copyright suits will likely follow.