Google finally responds by denying all that what Viacom accused them of which I posted a bit about before.

 A fairly complete report exists here. I don’t think anybody expected Google to just sit back and take it, certainly not when Viacom is looking for a billion dollars in damages.

The outcome of this (which no doubt will take a long time) will be an important case study and it will put into question many issues on the internet once again like the Grokster, Napster and Kazaa cases. The difference here is that it’s one company (albeit a very large one) vs. an entire industry (eg. the MPAA) and Google/Youtube has examples who are partnering and licensing content with other companies such as the BBC.

The bigger question to me however is the point I previously made, and that is that I don’t think this is just about Viacom feeling violated. It’s about defending its original way of making, producing and ultimately controlling content. The good news is that the particular Video in question is finally back up and posted again, but the damage was already done and this particular Video probably benefited from the recent release of Final Fantasy in the US!

A recent study indicates that less than 10% of YouTube’s popular videos are actually due to copyright materials. This is significant and potentially galling for the likes of Viacom because it may prove that this type of content is far more popular than they themselves are willing to accept and could potentially turn their existing industry upside down. Of course the study may have it’s inaccuracies but the point is that unlike the previous P2P cases, YouTube owes much of it’s success from these new creations due to the availability and low cost of making such productions and that is a very powerful and relevant statement.

I hope this case will also make the point that the little guy with the big idea will continue to be protected.