Gootube fires retaliatory salvo at Viacom

THE FIRST SHOTS of a court battle between Google's YouTube and the TV outfit Viacom have been fired with the search engine company saying its video-sharing site is perfectly legal, thank you for asking.

Viacom has sued Google claiming that YouTube has used digital technology to "willfully infringe copyrights on a huge scale".

Among the list of unauthorised bits on YouTube are Viacom's MTV, Comedy Central and other networks, such as "The Daily Show."

However, Google's briefs have told a federal court in New York that YouTube respects the importance of copyrights.

It says that the company does a lot more than it is required to do under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This law gives web hosts protection from copyright lawsuits so long as they comply with requests to remove unauthorised material, Google says.

YouTube claims it immediately complies with requests to have unauthorised material removed from the site.

If Viacom wins the battle it could be the end of YouTube and other companies that post content online. More here. µ