Google Responds To Viacom Lawsuit

Google has released its official response to Viacom’s billion dollar lawsuit against its YouTube property, saying that Viacom is threatening the way everyone exchanges information on the internet. Google’s claim is that Viacom’s lawsuit completely ignores the DMCA, and as a result threatens to unravel it and introduce all sorts of chaos for websites and service providers. It’s a great arguement, basically calling on Viacom to either strike down a very important piece of legislation, or prove that Google didn’t follow the DMCA correctly (which, for a billion dollars, is gonna be real tough).
Google is also asking for jury trial. Not sure if that means they mean business, or if it’s a bad idea. After all, wouldn’t judges understand better than stupid juries that the DMCA is vital to the free exchange on the internet, while the rubes on the jury might just say “a copyright […]

Original post by Nathan Weinberg