Viacom International, Inc., et al v. YouTube, Inc., et al.

Abstract

On March 13, 2007, Viacom International, Inc. and its affiliates, Comedy Partners, Country Music Television, Inc., Paramount Pictures Corporation and Black Entertainment Television, LLC (collectively as “Viacom”), commenced an action for direct, contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and inducement of copyright infringement against YouTube, Inc., YouTube, LLC and Google, Inc. (collectively as “YouTube”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. This action was consolidated with a putative class action law suit, which was filed on May 4, 2007, for purposes of discovery. The most recent development in the case is an order from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, which directed BayTSP, Inc (“BayTSP”) to produce records and documents related to its efforts in policing infringing material hosted by YouTube.

Keywords: copyright infringement, youtube, viacom

JEL Classification: K11