I certainly hope not, but this lawsuit doesn’t look good:

A one billion dollar lawsuit against YouTube threatens internet freedom, according to its owner Google.

Google’s claim follows Viacom’s move to sue the video sharing service for its inability to keep copyrighted material off its site.

Viacom says it has identified 150,000 unauthorised clips on YouTube.

In court documents Google’s lawyers say the action “threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information” over the web.

The copyright battle has become insane. We really need better laws protecting the rights of the people making the material, but also laying out a clear path when that information can be shared.

For example. This year we have seen numerous times that debates have been aired and the network airing it has said “no distributing clips of it”. Something involving our political process and the direction of our country should be considered public service and not fall under any restrictions. All but 2 debates aired only on cable networks, so what about the people without cable? It’s not fair that they miss out on political discussion that could affect their future.

News items should also be the same. The public has a right to know what’s going on, and not everyone can be in front of a television 24/7 or watch all the different networks. Public knowledge is a bedrock of democracy, and if we don’t have it then our democracy suffers.

Here’s another example of this from the article:

The company says the infringement also included the documentary An Inconvenient Truth which had been viewed “an astounding 1.5 billion times”.

So was An Inconvenient Truth only a money machine for them? Do they not believe in the message that came from the documentary? I would think any earth conscious person or company would be thrilled to see that so many are watching this.

Perhaps Al Gore needs to chime in and help get us legislation that protects everyone, but mostly protects the people of this country and their deserved knowledge.