NBC Universal supports Viacom in their YouTube piracy lawsuit

NBC Universal supports Viacom in their YouTube piracy lawsuit

Viacom filed a lawsuit against Google’s YouTube video sharing service claiming that they allow users to upload copyrighted material.

Google responded back by saying that they are in full compliance with the law as they provide tools to the media companies to check for copyrighted material on their service and alert them of any infringing video which are then removed from the service.

The latest news is that another media company NBC Universal is now supporting Viacom in their lawsuit against Google. They are now supporting another lawsuit filed against YouTube by Los Angeles News Service operator Robert Tur.

NBC Universal and Viacom have both submitted a friend of the court brief opposing YouTube’s bid to dismiss the copyright infringement suit brought by Tur. Tur has sued YouTube for allowing the users of their service to appropriate his famous footage of trucker Reginald Denny being beaten during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

NBC Universal said in their papers: “Many of NBCU’s most valuable copyrighted works have been copied, performed, and disseminated without authorization by YouTube and other similarly operated Websites. NBCU has a strong interest in preserving the strength and viability of all of its legal rights and remedies in response to such conduct.”

Incidentally, YouTube is also now facing another similar lawsuit by English soccer’s Premier League. The EPL has said that they have used the anti-piracy tools provided by the service and are not satisfied by the actions taken by the company to control piracy on their service.