Top > Webmaster > 2007 > January > 2007-01-28

YouTube and Google Sued

YouTube has reached its market value and business success story status by allowing users to upload practically any video they wish to its website and share it with fellow users, capitalizing and in fact epitomizing the Internet phenomenon known as Web 2.0. It has then been purchased by search engine giant Google for a record sum of $1.65 billion, but has since seen much legal complications.

The latest of these is copyright infringement lawsuits. News Corp., parent company of FOX, is concerned about YouTube airing episodes of the television hit drama ?24?. The company has filed a subpoena in a US District Court and insists on receiving the information of the YouTube user who ahs uploaded the videos. YouTube on their behalf refuse to release their members? identities.

Google has "promptly" removed the videos after the Fox notice, as a Google spokeswoman said. As per releasing their users? information, such a move will likely anger many. The legal lawsuit can also be viewed as a competition between Google and YouTube on the one side, and News Corp. and their MySpace Internet community, which they own on the other side. It is not unlikely for Google to give out the information eventually. In YouTube?s privacy policy, users are given a 20 day notice and an opportunity to respond before handing over information.