A certain irony struck me about this battle of the titans as I watched the latest developments. Viacom are going after Google for copyright infringement on their YouTube website, claiming that they don't do enough to stop their users from uploading protected material. Google say that the site is intended primarily for users to upload their own personal videos but that they can't stop users from uploading copyrighted stuff. Can that really be the case? I don't think so.

It's pretty apparent that Google do little policing of the content on the YouTube site. Admittedly porn is kept to a minimum but that's purely self serving. Google don't want YouTube to turn into a niche - even if it's a BIG niche like porn. No, they want users. They want all the users they can get. Everyone. They want you! More users means more advertising revenue. If that means they need to turn a blind eye to blatant copyright infringement then so be it.

Google recently scored a legal victory as Viacom's claim to get access to the Youtube code and even more critical intellectual property was shot down in court. Viacom argued that the only way to check if Google’s claim that its code couldn’t determine between infringement and non-infringement was to see the code. The judge denied Viacom’s request. The irony in all that is that it seems that Google are willing to vehemently protect their own intellectual property while displaying a flagrant disregard for everyone elses.

Viacom continue to argue that Google are actively using copyright infringing material on the Youtube site to increase their advertising revenues and that Google does little to control, block or remove infringing videos. However, Viacom's blatant attempt also to gain competitive advantage by getting access to Google's code continues to muddy the waters.

For my part, I'd like to see Viacom win the overall battle. Youtube does a lot to feed the culture of stealing content from the internet.  We've had our websites and content  copied word for word by people who didn't have the talent to do it for themselves. The stealing of music and movies continues to increase and it's easy to laugh behind our hands at the whinging of monolithic record companies who've 'stolen' royalties from artists for decades, but it's the artists, songwriters, performers and the like who lose out in the end. Steal the work that they've poured their heart and soul into and you pull the rug out from under their excellence. It's too easy to say that music and art will just find a new way to prosper and we're only hurting the evil corporates who've had their time. For the cream to rise to the top, there has to be a payday. Without  it, we'll be left in a mire of mediocrity.

It's already happening and YouTube feeds the myth that all this amazing, incredible content is 'free' and just belongs to the internet, when in reality, hard work, talent and occasional genius has never been free.

We'll miss it when it's gone.