Youtube says Viacom Uploaded Content to Force Lawsuits
Posted by Jen Fleishman in Social Media, strategy, viacom, YouTube
Today, sealed documents in the copyright infringement lawsuit (Viacom vs. YouTube) were made public. YouTube's main defense against Viacom's attack is that Viacom secretly uploaded content to YouTube and publicly complained about it being there. Viacom also tried to buy YouTube a bunch of times, suggesting that the $1 billion lawsuit is an attempt to cash in after the fact.
If this is true, Viacom forced bad PR on YouTube with unethical tactics when they couldn't profit off of them initially in order to steal revenue.
This move is going to cause a backlash of rescinded goodwill against Viacom. The public hates unearthed schemes more than just about anything.