Google vs. Viacom: Will Michael Kwun eat his DMCA words?

Michael Kwun, Google Managing Counsel, Litigation, has fighting words for $1 billion copyright infringement plaintiff Viacom, declared publicly via The Washington Post.

Unfortunately for Kwun, his words are in direct contradiction to those of his boss, CEO Eric Schmidt, also declared publicly, a stone’s throw from the Googleplex last August.

Kwun today: "Fortunately, the (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) law is clear, and on our side."

Schmidt at SES San Jose 2006:

We have to respect the copyright owners' information, and it's okay to disagree on the precise aspects of the law, but no one at Google is suggesting that we are not subject to copyright law. In the United States there is a fairly well-established doctrine of fair use. And depending on which graduate school or legal school the lawyer went to, they disagree on precise details. The ones who went to this law school agree on one thing and the ones that went to this law school went to another. And I've learned that the law is not as crisply defined in this area as you might want. So in our case, we've analyzed this pretty carefully. We believe that the library work we're doing, given that we're not, in fact, reproducing the book but rather simply a snippet and then we have a pointer to the book, is absolutely permitted by fair use. Reasonable people can disagree with that, but that is our view and we spent a lot of time on it. And I don't think we're going to change our tune on that.

Kwun lambasts: “Viacom is attempting to rewrite established copyright law through a baseless lawsuit.”

Viacom may very well counter attack: Google’s YouTube is attempting to circumvent established copyright law through a baseless DMCA cover.

Kwun is a master at the all powerful Google spin:

Viacom's lawsuit is an attack on the way people communicate on the Web and on the platforms that allow people to make the Internet their own.

Really, Mr. Kwun?

Google’s wanton free content for YouTube modus operandi is an attack on the American capitalist system.

Google’s $150 billion market cap genius does not stem from a search algorithm or advertising auction scheme. The Google magic is an uncanny ability to proceed undeterred via a Google-centric media business model that commercially exploits content produced by others, but does not compensate the content producers or owners for the Google for-profit use of their content.

If Kwun is inciting stolen copyright video uploads to YouTube as a way for people to "communicate on the Web,” he may very well be cited individually as a Defendant in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York matter.

Google does not allow people to make the Internet their own, it encourages people to make the content of others their own!