Pre-acquisition internal Google documents: YouTube “rogue enabler of content theft”

In May 2006, an internal memo circulated within the Google corporation called the then independent video sharing platform YouTube a “rogue enabler of content theft”. In another document, the search engine giant’s video division stated that YouTube’s business model was “completely sustained by pirated content”.

These documents were brought forward by Viacom, one of the large cable/media corporation of the US. Viacom and Google have locked their horns in a lawsuit as Viacom feels Google has played a role in enabling sharing of Viacom’s copyrighted content from channels such as MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. At stake is a one billion dollar claim from Viacom. It would seem that Viacom’s obtaining and releasing these documents will do Google’s defence not much good.

In spite of classifying YouTube as a somewhat shade platform, Google went on to buy YouTube for no less than 1,76 billion dollars.

20 April 2010