SAN FRANCISCO - Viacom demanded on
Friday that YouTube remove more than 100,000 unauthorised clips of
its television programmes from the popular video-sharing
website.
Viacom said it insisted that clips from its programmes such as MTV,
Comedy Central and Nickelodeon be "removed immediately" after
months of failed negotiations with Google-owned YouTube regarding
getting paid for their use.
"It has become clear that YouTube is unwilling to come to a fair
market agreement that would make Viacom content available to
YouTube users," Viacom said in a written statement.
"Filtering tools promised repeatedly by YouTube and Google have not
been put in place, and they continue to host and stream vast
amounts of unauthorised video."
Viacom accused YouTube and Google of hording advertising revenue
from the website and that Google compounded the issue recently by
including video from YouTube in results from the Google Video
search engine.
Google bought YouTube in November in a 1.65-billion-dollar stock
deal.
Video content on YouTube is provided by users and ranges from
amateurish, homemade vignettes to clips from professional films,
television programmes and music videos.
YouTube has gone on record saying it follows US law by removing
copyrighted works when the owners complain and is developing
"fingerprinting" technology to better defend video ownership.
- AFP