Big Picture
Good Morning, Nicki! Plus, Daniel Radcliffe works his magic and Bruce Jenner blasts to the past. Get the latest pics!
MORE PHOTOS +Most Commented
- TV's Top Couples Tournament: Vote in the Final Round! (2036)
- TV's Top Couples Tournament: This Round Is Closed, Please Stand By (698)
- Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart Photos Galore! New Pics From Their Post-Twilight Flicks! (606)
- Afternoon Mail! Are Gleeks Having More Sex Than Vamps? (586)
- TV's Top Couple Tournament: And the Winner Is... (504)
- Beyoncé and Jay-Z Share First Photos of Baby Blue Ivy! (398)
- Whitney Houston Dead at 48 (396)
- Twitter Name Change: Introducing @Ted_Casablanca (259)
- Life After Breaking Dawn?! Maybe, Says Studio Head! (226)
- Morning Mail! Céline Dion Talks Whitney Houston's Tragic Death (222)
Top 10 Stories
- Jennifer Lopez Tweets, Then Deletes, Steamy Casper Smart Shot—Check It Out!
- Bobby Brown Rejoins New Edition Tour—Which Touches Down Near Whitney Houston's Funeral
- Gary Busey's Stuff Detailed for Bankruptcy Filing: VHS Tapes, Tepees and Tambourines
- Whitney Houston Remembered by Sparkle Producer: "Almost a Magic About Her"
- Miley Cyrus "Better Watch" Hunger Games, Says Liam Hemsworth
- Colbert Report Mystery Shutdown: Production Suspended Due to "Unforeseen Circumstances"
- Kevin Costner? Aretha Franklin? Bobby Brown? Latest Details on Whitney Houston's Funeral
- Diddy Remembers Whitney Houston: "She Was So Full of Life"
- Royal Feud Shocker! Sean Penn Slams Prince William's "Unthinkable" Deployment
- Real Housewives' Michaele Salahi & Journey's Neal Schon: Tareq Salahi Is the One Tormenting Us!
Fashion Police
Our Partners
Colbert and Stewart Suited for Google
Stephen Colbert has been called upon to tell the truthiness, and nothing but the truthiness.
The Colbert Report host and fellow Comedy Central satirist Jon Stewart are included on a list of people Google Inc. wants to depose in connection with the $1 billion lawsuit it's fighting against Viacom Inc. The list was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
The Sumner Redstone-helmed conglomerate was the one that sued Google in March, claiming that YouTube, which tends to be one of the go-to Websites if you want to check out video clips from The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, engaged in "massive intentional copyright infringement of Viacom's entertainment properties" by harboring nearly 160,000 unauthorized clips from some of the company's most popular TV shows and movies.
In addition to Comedy Central, Viacom also owns MTV, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, CMT and a variety of other media outlets.
Google, which has stated its confidence in YouTube's respect for copyright law, acquired the video-sharing site last year for about $1.65 billion.
While Google's legal camp didn't go into detail as to what it might have to gain from questioning Colbert and Stewart, it says that depositions are needed from more than 30 people to fight this challenge from Viacom that threatens "to silence communications by hundreds of millions of people across the globe who exchange information, news and entertainment" via the Internet.
FYI, dueling kitties falls under "entertainment." It's possible that Altoid-based science experiments could be considered "information."
Anyway, Google sought a dismissal in May, citing the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act's safe harbor provisions, which protect Website providers from liability as a result of their users' actions, if the provider removes the contraband content when it is asked to do so—as YouTube claims it did.
Google is also looking to depose Redstone, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman and various other executives from the company's myriad holdings.
Viacom, meanwhile, has requested depositions from Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and YouTube masterminds Steve Chen and Chad Hurley.
But the justice system budges for no one, even when there are some extraheavy hitters involved.
According to the federal court schedule, third-party depositions aren't scheduled to begin until Nov. 7, while the questioning of Viacom and Google executives and employees won't start until Mar. 7, 2008.
Then, both sides have until Dec. 7 of next year to complete the discovery process, after which a trial date will be set (if the lawsuit has not yet been settled). So, the jury might not hear the case until early 2009.
In the meantime, you can still watch clips from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on YouTube, although not as many as you could during the site's less litigious heyday.
0 Comments
Now loading...