Google filed an official response to Viacom's complaint, stating that the suit "threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment, and political and artistic information." Google is referring to video-sharing sites such as its own YouTube, which the search engine giant purchased last year for $1.65 billion in stock.
"We think YouTube offers the world's leading platform for entertainment, education and free speech," said Michael Kwun, managing counsel for litigation at Google. "We're not going to let this lawsuit distract us."
Google's defense team is arguing that YouTube is safe from copyright prosecution under the DMCA because it quickly removes content that is accused of violating copyright laws, and offers "best of class" tools for copyright owners to locate and identify its content featured on the site.
Kwun said Google itself cannot identify or block copyrighted material, but the company takes special measures to keep track of removed content using a "digital fingerprint," and disallows users from uploading content longer than 10 minutes, preventing pirated TV shows and movies from appearing on the site in full.
However, it still is the responsibility of the copyright holders to find their content on YouTube and take measures to remove it.
"We're trying to make it as simple as possible for content owners to be able to find their content on our system and decide what they want to do about that," Kwun said. "We're always going to need their help in looking at the material."
A PDF of Google's official response to Viacom's lawsuit can be viewed at CNET News online.