Viacom suffered a resounding defeat in their lawsuit against YouTube, but promptly appealed. MP3tunes filed a brief of support in the YouTube case.
We uncovered evidence of elaborate schemes by Viacom to market movies and TV shows using YouTube — while masquerading their corporate actions as those of motivated fans. Internal Viacom emails reveal:
'THIS MUST BE VIRAL AND NOT DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO US.'
'It should definitely not be associated with the studio - should appear as if a fan created and posted it.'
While Viacom tells the court that YouTube knows or should know what videos are pirated, their own words tell a completely different story. Because media companies use the net for marketing, they often don't know what's authorized. The appellate court should affirm the lower court's ruling.
--MR
