Facebook, eBay Inc., and Yahoo Inc. were among the internet companies that had backed Google in its battle with Viacom.
The sparring leading up to Stanton’s decision proved embarrassing for both sides.
An early eMail exchange among Hurley, Chen, and Karim showed at least one of them might have knowingly violated copyrights as they posted video clips during the service’s early stages.
“Jawed, please stop putting stolen videos on the site,” Chen wrote in the July 19, 2005, message. “We’re going to have a tough time defending the fact that we’re not liable for the copyrighted material on the site because we didn’t put it up when one of the co-founders is blatantly stealing content from other sites and trying to get everyone to see it.”
Other documents showed Viacom had hoped to buy YouTube before getting trumped by Google, making it seem as if the media company’s later claims of copyright abuse might have been a case of sour grapes.
A July 2006 eMail message from Fricklas, Viacom’s top lawyer, even disputed that YouTube was engaged in rampant copyright infringement. “Mostly YouTube behaves,” Fricklas wrote.
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