Google, Viacom - Valleywag

Chad and Steve

What Viacom really wants to know about YouTube videos

What is Viacom really after in its $1 billion lawsuit against Google over YouTube? Despite a lengthy invite list, Viacom PR was only to drum up "a small press gathering" to listen to CEO Philippe Dauman at a screening for Tropic Thunder last night, according to Greg Sandoval's report on News.com. Dauman called YouTube a "rogue company" — and expressed disappointment that Google did nothing to rein it in. Viacom's now being painted as a rogue itself, seeking to violate YouTube users' privacy in requesting viewing logs from the site. More »

11:40 AM on Tue Jul 22 2008
By Owen Thomas
516 views, 4 comments

Latest by ThaiKitchen: That might have true to that, since that's the only thing holding YouTube to their millions. According to this analysis of more »

copyfight

Mahalo Daily suspended from YouTube

is no longer available on YouTube. Not just a few clips have been taken down, but the whole account has been suspended. Why? A series of DMCA takedown notices from Google nemesis Viacom, naturally. I spoke to Mahalo Daily producer Tyler Crowley, who explained that he received a number of violation notices in quick succession, triggering YouTube's "three strikes, you're out" account suspension policy — even though Mahalo Daily is part of the YouTube partner program. What crime against intellectual property did Mahalo Daily commit? More »

12:40 PM on Wed Jul 16 2008
By Jackson West
2,885 views, 9 comments

great moments in pr

5 questions Viacom doesn't want Valleywag to ask Philippe Dauman

Touchy Viacom flack Jeremy Zweig called Valleywag up to let us know personally that we'd been disinvited from next week's press-only screening of Tropic Thunder. Such a pity! Because we had a list of questions we were going to ask Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman: More »

2:20 PM on Tue Jul 15 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,427 views, 6 comments

Latest by Shadowlayer: @raincoaster: you're asking me? I thought they made crappy teen shows... more »

double standards

How Google could humiliate Viacom in YouTube lawsuit

Worried that your obsessive kitten-video viewing records on YouTube would be exposed in Viacom's copyright lawsuit against YouTube? You can relax. Google and Viacom lawyers have reached an agreement to anonymize records of usernames and IP addresses in YouTube's video-viewing logs, which Viacom wants to examine to show patterns of willful copyright infringement on the site. The accounts of employees of both companies, however, aren't included in the deal. And that suggests a negotiating tactic for Google. More »

12:40 PM on Tue Jul 15 2008
By Owen Thomas
3,246 views, 3 comments

Latest by internetlawattorney: I am still amazed that the judge approved the original order requiring the personally identifiable information of google's users. Viacom more »

great moments in pr

Viacom unleashes PR thunder on San Francisco's press corps

Viacom's legal spat with Google has the media conglomerate cast in copyright-hating, freedom-to-upload-videos-loving Silicon Valley as a mustachio-twirling villain, out to expose YouTube viewers' usernames and IP addresses. Bwahahaha! Benighted flack Jeremy Zweig has been reduced to leaving comments on blogs in response. At last, he's getting some corporate firepower: Zweig and Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman Sr. are inviting a bunch of tech journalists a screening next Monday of Tropic Thunder, the Ben Stiller action-movie parody coming to theaters next month, and YouTube probably sooner than that. We've seen the invite list, and it left us scratching our heads. More »

11:20 AM on Mon Jul 14 2008
By Owen Thomas
790 views, 2 comments

Latest by smashface: @Paul Boutin: Ding! It is Owen's response to TC's Foo Camp review. more »

copyfight

Viacom wants to know viewing habits of YouTube employees

As a part of its copyright-infringement lawsuit against Google and YouTube, Viacom lawyers have asked for data that will detail which videos YouTube employees have watched and uploaded. Google has so far refused to provide the information, delaying an already agreed-upon transfer of some 12 terabytes of data detailing what types of videos are most often viewed on the site. Here's why Viacom wants the employee information: More »

9:40 AM on Mon Jul 14 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
1,189 views, 1 comment

Latest by ROIpositive: Nicely played. more »

great moments in pr

Viacom says it never wanted to know all the videos you watched (but it did)

Despite reports to the contrary, Viacom did not, as a part of its copyright suit against Google and YouTube, ask for "any personally identifiable information of any YouTube user" the company now wants us all to believe. It will get data from YouTube, but anything personally identifiying will be "stripped from the data." It's nice bit of PR revisionism. According to court documents, Viacom did "seek all data from the Logging database concerning each time a YouTube video has been viewed." Only after the court sided with Viacom, but public opinion did not, did Viacom agree to accept scrubbed data. (Photo by AP)

10:20 AM on Fri Jul 11 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
758 views, 6 comments

Latest by mrfomoco: Hey, lookee who stepped out from behind their favorite jurisprudent technicality and agreed to accept _masked_ YouTube user-data.: [news.cnet.com] if (ShineBrightLight() == more »

your privacy is an illusion

Google to tell Viacom how many times you watched LonelyGirl15

Two rulings came down in Viacom's copyright infringement suit against Google and its video-sharing site YouTube yesterday. The first: Despite Viacom's wishes, Google will not have to turn over YouTube's source code. It will however, turn over to Viacom "every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users' names and IP addresses," reports Threat Level. Viacom's lawyers say they need to the information to prove that copyright-infringing content is more popular on the site than legally uploaded videos. We're hoping Viacom will go on to publish the list, just like AOL did with users' search queries back in 2006. Remember how much fun that was?

9:00 AM on Thu Jul 3 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
1,704 views, 2 comments

Latest by G2GdoB2B: Can I be sued? I didn't download the video to my hard drive. YouTube is the one with the mess, more »

copyfight

Viacom "threatens" freedom of expression, says Google

Google's lawyers suggest that Viacom's strategy in its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube is to subvert the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's protection of websites and Internet service providers and "threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and artistic expression." The argument is set forth in a response to Viacom's amended complaint filed in April, which cited 150,000 examples of infringing content, which together had been viewed 1.5 billion times. More »

5:00 PM on Mon May 26 2008
By Jackson West
815 views, 1 comment

Latest by twig: Google's response also demands a trial by jury, moving further away from any possibility for a settlement. I'm not sure this more »

copyfight

Google "going all the way to the Supreme Court" against Viacom

Do Google lawyers plan to settle with Viacom over its $1 billion copyright infringement suit against Google and it's video-sharing site YouTube? "Nope," says grandiloquent dealmaker David Eun, VP of content partnerships at Google. "We're going all the way to the Supreme Court," Eun said. "We're very clear about it." With brass-balled talk like that, you'd think Eun hasn't seen Viacom's thinly-veiled threats of violence against YouTube. (Photo by James Gordon)

8:40 AM on Wed May 7 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
1,504 views, 2 comments

Latest by ScalaWag: Earth to Google: Prepare to get fucked more »

google

Valleywag team

SUBSCRIBE TO Valleywag