Google Denies, Viacom Gets Glib

Google has finally responded to Viacom’s copyright infringement suit against its underling, YouTube. Google essentially denies all claims made by Viacom, other than the fact the company has acquired YouTube and its users are allowed to upload video to the site. (Check out the document and count the number of lines that begin, “Defendants are without sufficient knowledge,” or “Defendants deny”.

The crux of Google’s defense, according to the response, filed April 30:
By seeking to make carriers and hosting providers liable for internet communications, Viacom’s complaint threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment, and political and artistic expression. Google and YouTube respect the importance of intellectual property rights, and not only comply with their safe harbor obligations under the DMCA, but go well above and beyond what the law requires.

Reports note Viacom has issued a comeback statement, claiming “It is obvious that YouTube has knowledge of infringing material on their site and they are profiting from it. It is simply not credible that a company whose mission is to organize the world’s information claims that it can’t find what’s on YouTube.”