Google Says Law Supports YouTube Model

The news yesterday that Viacom had filed sued in federal court against Google, seeking $1 billion in damages for "massive intentional copyright infringement" has failed to rattle the nerves of the search giant, reports Reuters.

The company's lawyers said yesterday they believe the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 provides strong protection for companies like itself.

"Here there is a law which is specifically designed to give Web hosts such as us, or... bloggers or people that provide photo-album hosting online ... the 'safe harbor' we need in order to be able to do hosting online," said Google associate general counsel Alexander Macgillivray in an interview with the wire service. "We will never launch a product or acquire a company unless we are completely satisfied with its legal basis for operating."

The thing about courthouse bravado, though, is that the other side usually knows the law, too. And after six months of threatening to sue, it's a safe bet that Viacom is confident it can overcome the barriers to a suit enshrined in the 1998 law.

For a good run-down of the bones of Viacom's argument, check out Steve Bryant's GoogleWatch blog on eWEEK.com, where he offers an 18-point breakdown of the legal charges.

Viacom also won support from the world's largest media companies -- from News Corp. to Time Warner -- after filing its suit. Those companies, Bloomberg points out, are faced with the tricky two-step of pressuring YouTube and Google to respect copyrights even as they are negotiating deals to get their content out in front of millions of Internet viewers.