By Michael Calia
Google Inc. and Viacom Inc. on Tuesday said they have resolved
copyright litigation related to Google's YouTube service.
The terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
"Google and Viacom today jointly announced the resolution of the
Viacom vs. YouTube copyright litigation," the companies 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."
Viacom, in a $1 billion lawsuit, had claimed YouTube allowed
users to post copyrighted content without permission between 2005
and 2008, including from Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and
"South Park."
The case centered on YouTube's practices mostly before 2008,
when video sharing online was still in its relatively early stages.
Viacom has said it wanted to establish a precedent with the
lawsuit.
Last April, a federal judge in Manhattan threw out the case for
a second time, saying the burden of identifying the specific
content that had be removed from YouTube fell on Viacom. At the
time, Viacom said it intended to appeal the ruling.
Write to Michael Calia at michael.calia@wsj.com
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