Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

YouTube, Viacom Still Calling Each Other (Naughty) Names

Viacom and YouTube released another set of documents in their long-running legal battle today. If you were bored by the last two data dumps, you’ll be positively stupefied by today’s data.

The gist: The two sides continue to make the same arguments they’ve made in the past. Viacom (VIA) says Google’s (GOOG) video site intentionally violated its copyrights. And YouTube says it is protected by federal law and that Viacom didn’t care about copyright violations until business negotiations broke down.

Don’t believe me? Feel free to check it out for yourself: The two sides have helpfully arranged most of their documents here and here. It’s cheaper than Ambien.

Or you can just enjoy this representative excerpt from YouTube’s filing, in which it argues that the court shouldn’t read anything into the fact that its employees referred to Viacom as “copyright bastards” and “a-holes” during chat sessions (click to enlarge the text, in all its PG-13 glory):

Have a great weekend!

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