Court: Viacom Can’t Seek Punitive Damages from Google
A U.S. district court judge in New York has denied Viacom’s motion to seek punitive damages in its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube and parent company Google. Judge Louis Stanton issued his ruling on March 7th, stating that U.S. copyright law does not accommodate punitive damages in a copyright infringement case.
Under copyright law, Viacom will still be able to seek statutory damages. The programming giant filed an infringement suit against YouTube and Google in March 2007, claiming about 160,000 video clips from Viacom programs were posted on YouTube without permission and compensation. Google claims that its actions are covered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Last month, a federal judge granted Google’s request for more time to hand over documents in the case. The deadline was extended to May.
