Arbitration & Mediation

Google, Viacom and YouTube: What's Holding Up a Settlement

By Victoria Pynchon

Today the Silicon Alley Insider in its post Google, Viacom: We Won't Settle YouTube Fight Out Of Court asked the same question about Google and Viacom that we've been asking about J.K. Rawling and a middle school teacher -- Whuzzup with the whole settlement thing?

As Alley reports, David Eun, VP in charge of Google content partnerships told Dow Jones Newswires ``we're going all the way to the Supreme Court.  We're very clear about it.''

In the law biz we call this "posturing," and that "all the way to the Supreme Court" comment we call laughable posturing.  Alley says:

Call us dreamers, but we still think both sides could kiss and make up before this gets to the Supremes. After all, the two sides were negotiating for months before going hostile. And Sumner Redstone's other media company -- CBS -- seems quite happy with YouTube. So while both sides can argue that there are important principles at play here, we're pretty sure they can get resolved with an appropriately sized check. 

Of course it might well not be the size of a check but some other set of commercial exchanges, concessions, or synergies that will eventually settle the thing.  

These are business people for goodness sakes.  And never was a business person born who wants to establish Supreme Court precedent.  Talk about giving away your power and control.  

We welcome comments from more knowledgeable readers!

Full post as published by Settle It Now Negotiation Blog on May 07, 2008 (boomark / email).