The response by Google (GOOG) in a federal court in New York to the Viacom lawsuit (VIA-B) was that they've went "above and beyond what is required under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
In the middle of March Viacom sued the Internet behemoth because they "willfully infringe copyrights on a huge scale." The media company specifically mentioned some of their more popular programming from "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "Comedy Central" and MTV.
Google said the same thing they've said all along in that they cooperate with copyright holders whenever they let the company know about infractions.
Of course the problem is that the cost of monitoring those things are so high that it becomes an impossible task to monitor, and Google knows that.
What's interesting to me is that I think something concerning Google has turned in general with public perception. The public outcries and number of bloggers battling for the honor of Google seems to be diminishing. It seems that they're becoming one of "them," rather than an upstart battling the big guys. Now they are the "big guys." I think that's taking a lot of sympathy away from their cause.
They are no different than any other company now as they are trying to get into almost every area of Internet business. That's fine, but it takes away from that edgy company that people liked to see win all the time.
Even the reponse that they're giving saying they're doing what is required under the Digital Millennium Act is the standard response of any big company to problems they encounter, as far as saying they're complying with the law.
I think that Google is losing a lot of its luster in the court of public opinion, regardless of what the outcome of the battle with Viacom results in.
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