A Financial Times report said that Viacom and Google decided to settle a billion-dollar copyright infringement lawsuit over YouTube's digital video service. YouTube is currently owned by Google. According to an unnamed source who was familiar with the settlement, the deal did not involve any cash exchanged between the two firms. The rest of the details of the settlement were not revealed.
The companies had said in a joint statement, "This settlement reflects the growing collaborative dialogue between our two companies on important opportunities, and we look forward to working more closely together."
Analyst Brian Wieser with Pivotal Research commented about the settlement and said, "At the time, there was this notion of traditional media being threatened. That's been proven wrong. What was seen to be a major issue of a different era is generally unimportant now."
The lawsuit was filed by Viacom in 2007, when the owner of MTV Networks, Nickelodeon and Paramount film studios claimed that Google and YouTube violated copyright laws after the former discovered that tens of thousands of its video clips had been uploaded without permission to the video service. Viacom claimed that the action had hurt the company in terms of ad revenues and fees from pay-television distributors, as people will now opt to view cable television shows and other videos on the popular video service.
FT said that eight months after the lawsuit was filed, YouTube made several implementations that allow it and other media companies to screen and remove content that were pirated from its video service. Viacom, on the other hand, appeared to have not been satisfied with the move and insisted on pursuing the case.
Interestingly, YouTube has been the go-to service for television companies who wish to promote their shows to earn additional advertising revenues in the process. Viacom was also observed operating channels on YouTube for its MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon television networks, FT said.
