Google sez: So Sue Me.

Interesting take by John Battelle & Fred Lohmann of the EFF, on why Google might actually *want* to get sued:

Small timers tend to lack the resources to bring top-drawer legal talent to bear in these fights. As a result, they often lose, creating useful precedents for the Google's of the world. In fact, Google has already been successful in securing good precedents against unsophisticated opponents who thought that they could squeeze a quick settlement out of Google (Field v. Google, Parker v. Google). What the small-timers don't appreciate is that Google would much rather spend money on setting a good precedent than on settling. So I think the YouTube acquisition may well represent a legal opportunity for Google (and the Internet industry generally), rather than a vulnerability. After all, litigation to define the copyright rules for new online services are inevitable -- better to choose your battles and plan for them, rather than fleeing the fight and letting some other company create bad precedents that will haunt you later

Comments

[Shripriya]

Interesting post. I think anyone who can change the rules on "fair use" will do the world a world of good. Let's hope it is Google. They seem to have the stomach for it.

[Ted Rheingold]

I suspect they had a similar confidence when hoping to shut down the Telco's plan for 2-tier internet. Hopefully they learned the lesson that new money and smarts does not trump entrenched businesses and all their connections.

If they don't win trademark cases they'll have raised the precendent bar that much higher.