Viacom recently sued Google and YouTube for copyright infringment, the first big lawsuit against the online video site and the company that owns it. Viacom, the owner of two popular stations MTV and Comedy Central, claims that unauthorized clips of Viacom have been viewable on YouTube and they have been viewed many times.
Unlike the move that has been made by other media companies such as GE- which owns NBC, and CBS where they were able to settle an agreement with Google and YouTube and made them their partners, Viacom decided to sue.
The move of those who partnered with YouTube is based on the gain from the increased exposure of the shows which clips are available on the website. Some media companies sees the posting of videoclips as an opportunity to advertise their show to millions and millions of viewers, mostly young people. On the other hand, Viacom's move is presented by them as a stand to protect their right. I believe that they did that because they weren't able to get a deal they want from Google.
It is true that Viacom has a right to protect its products and has a cause of action against Google, however there are times when a person would gain more from a bad compromise agreement as compared to a glorious victory from the court. I believe that this is one of the cases where this idea applies. Why? Because 1) Viacom fails to see the great opportunity it could get from joining, instead of going against, YouTube such as multplied advertising and exposure 2)like BBC, Viacom can circumvent its problem by instead opening channels on YouTube 3) also like BBC, it could instead strike a deal with YouTube to get a share of the advertising revenue generate by the traffic to the channels it may set up - but then again maybe Viacom wants more which is why they sued.
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