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the goog spanks viacom, viacom reacts like spoiled brat

Hey hey hey–remember when Viacom was all “wah wah wah copyrighted content wah wah wah google is the suxx0rz” and the Goog was all “we r0xx0rz and own teh internetz” and then everyone decided that the best thing to do was to get very expensive lawyers involved in the process? Well surprise, folks: Google wins, Viacom loses, and everyone’s favorite site is allowed to continue its operations without fear nor hindrance. Yesterday, a federal judge in New York sided with The Big G in a $1 billion copyright lawsuit filed by Viacom, stating that the service was following the DMCA to the letter and that Viacom should find better things to do, like helping orphans and rescuing stray kittens. Thus, the geniuses at Viacom decided that the smartest reaction was to throw even more money at more lawyers to appeal the decision, based on the grounds that they really, really like spending money on lawyers.

Okay, so it’s a little more complicated than that. There was that big brouhaha over internal youtube emails awhile back, and the clusterfrak involving phony accounts created by Viacom in order to secretly promote its own wares. But you know what? None of that matters. The feds have more or less OFFICIALLY approved the way the Internet works today, which means that we can all waste even more of our lives watching cats and babies do stupid, stupid things. Strike one for FREEDOM!

You know, if Viacom was smart, they’d just sweep this to the side, call it ancient history, and legally jump on the youtube bandwagon. Or maybe save the cash in order to produce better content. Appealing the decision is a waste of time and money–you can’t fight the Internet, after all. Drawing out this legal battle is just hurting their own marketing opportunities, and making them look like a bunch of selfish prats in the process.

Here’s what we want to know from you fine folks out there: where do you fall on this? Do you think Viacom actually has a case? If so, why? Because we honestly don’t know how Viacom can leave this little tussle smelling like roses.

one response to “the goog spanks viacom, viacom reacts like spoiled brat”

1. s said on 07.06.10 at 2:53 pm:

   Google > Viacom.
   The Internet > Viacom.
   Barber and Martin > Viacom.

talk to us.