Report: YouTube Employees May Have Uploaded Viacom Clips

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 6, 2009 - 8:12am.

San Francisco - Viacom (NYSE: VIA), the media conglomerate that filed a $1 billion copyright infringement suit against Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube, may have uncovered evidence that YouTube employees themselves uploaded Viacom content to the site, CNET News.com reported, citing three sources with knowledge of the case. The evidence is reportedly found in emails, which "indicate that YouTube managers knew and discussed the existence of unauthorized content on the site with employees but chose not to remove the material," CNET reports.

Such actions could remove YouTube's "safe harbor" protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which says service providers are not liable for infringing content posted by users of their services.

"The characterizations of the supposed evidence, made in violation of a court order, are wrong, misleading, or lack important context and notably come on the heels of a series of significant setbacks for the plaintiffs," YouTube spokesman Aaron Zamost told CNET.

"The evidence will show that we go above and beyond our legal obligations to protect the rights of content owners."

While evidence may show that Viacom employees also uploaded the company's content to YouTube, the company has maintained that this does not undermine its copyright infringement claims against YouTube.

Roger Goff, an entertainment attorney not involved in the case, told CNET he believes the emails "could very well be the smoking gun that puts a hole through Google's case."