Google seem to have landed themselves in hot water as a result their recent purchase of
YouTube. The sensationally successful website, which was bought for $1.65 Billion in stock late last year has been targetted by media company
Viacom. Viacom claim that YouTube intentionally breach copyright to generate revenue, through advertising and so are looking for $1million from the search engine giant.
Google will have to think very carefully, as conceding any ground on this will put them in line for a many, many more lawsuits.
The lesson to the rest of us though is to make sure that any content that we use on our websites is entirely legal. Copyright infringement can be a very serious game.
We, of course, ensure that all content (copy, media, imagery etc) we use is entirely legitimate. However when Content Management systems are used, website owners have the opportunity to maintain their sites. It's important the significance and implications of using other people's work is understood - in particular, what is and what isn't legal theirs to use.