The spat between YouTube and Viacom has ended up in a very public mud-slinging match with Viacom hitting back at comments made on the video upload site’s blog.
Just yesterday, YouTube accused Viacom of ‘roughing up videos’ to hide the fact the company was uploading content to a site it was suing in the courts for $1 billion.
“For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there,” explained Zahavah Levine, YouTube Chief Counsel on the blog.
Red herrings
Viacom has hit back stating that YouTube are in the wrong, noting in a statement: “Google and YouTube had the technology to stop infringement at any time but deliberately chose not to use it.
“They would only offer to protect Viacom’s content if Viacom agreed to license those works, effectively holding copyright protection as ransom for a license.”
The statement goes on to point the finger, saying: “The law is clear that Google and YouTube are liable for their infringement.
“The statements by Google regarding Viacom activities are merely red herrings and have no relevance on the legal facts of this case.”
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