The big battle we’ve all been waiting for has finally commenced, as Viacom sues Google over copyrighted content on YouTube. If the two sides don’t wimp out and settle, we may finally have an answer to the question of whether or not YouTube can be held responsible for the fact that its popularity is largely founded on the presence of use uploaded clips of copyright protected content.
I’m not a lawyer, but I would guess that as long as YouTube has not explicitly stated in any way that their business plan depends on or benefits from illegally uploaded copyrighted content. They’ve probably been fairly careful about this consciously at least. But there is little doubt that Viacom will try to subpoena thousands of internal emails (the subconscious if you will) in an attempt to show that YouTube and Google did acknowledge the dependence on what Viacom alleges is an illegal business model. In the absence of any smoking guns like this, a judge may find him/herself having to decide whether to serve the letter of the law (Google wins), or the spirit (Viacom wins).