Judge in YouTube case rebukes Google, Viacom

October 27, 2007 The judge presiding over the Google-Viacom lawsuit slapped down both sides Friday for what he essentially described as gamesmanship, citing Viacom in particular for "misguided behavior" in its latest maneuver. The litigants, in a Manhattan courtroom for a Friday hearing in the lawsuit's discovery phase, were each forced to defend a procedural tactic that the judge frowned upon. Google lawyers, led by well-known litigator Phil Beck, asked that the hearing be made private out of fear that Viacom in its presentation refer to data that Google classified as "highly confidential."

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