Viacom files $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube

Here's the next round in the copyright battle:  CNET is reporting that yesterday
Viacom Entertainment filed a lawsuit against YouTube/Google that is asking for
more than $1 billion in damages. The suit cites "massive intentional
copyright infringement" and says that over 160,000 Viacom-owned clips have
been viewed more than 1.5 billion times on YouTube.

Here's the link to the article:
http://news.com.com/Viacom+sues+Google+over+YouTube+clips/2100-1030_3-6166668.ht
ml?tag=nefd.lede

This is really huge...what's next?

This development was expected, totally.

One of the things Google is going to find out is that, unlike the fishwraps and
glossies, Hollywood, Inc., is used to playing with gumbas; and playing dirty at
that.

This isn't going away, and might egg things faster towards an inflection point
where both consumer, and media pushback become a crescendo in Google backlash. 

After all, guess who owns the media companies? 

Whatever the reporters talking heads may say about journalistic integrity, they
will toe the line when it comes to corporate policy. And if that policy says
demean GOOG at all costs, guess what happens?

Those kinds of pushbacks also have a long staying power: the current one against
Microsoft has lasted exactly thirteen years. 

John's brain:Hmmm.....that is certainly coincident with Bill Gates' ascent to
the top of Forbes 400 richest humans, and has lasted exactly the same amount of
time....Could the unpleasant, and quite malevolent attacks on Microsoft be as a
result of wealth envy?..Hmmm......

They better put their vaunted search algorithms to work ferretting out the
offending material soon, before that tranche of kesh is given over as fines.

It’s a battle between op-in and opt-out and a life log battle for youtube, I
am going to count a billion for each year, in 2012, it would be $6B. Google
would ask content owners to prove the value($1B). 

kind rgrds
Saran