Modern Day David & Goliath: German Student Takes On Google

PRESS RELEASE

The Internet giant is taking action against Philip Matesanz, a 21 year old German computer science student from Germany. His fault: offering a service that, though he believed it to be legal, Google have taken exception to. He gives the public the functionality to take a private recording of videos publicly broadcasted by YouTube; comparable to a cassette recorder which can create a recording of a public radio broadcast. Philip claims that Google and its allies are currently repeating history by making a reference to the 80's campaign "Home Taping Is Killing Music".  

Google has demanded that he should cease his service within seven days or they would take legal action. Philip has refused to close his service and is currently considering his options as the dispute boils down to: Google Inc. vs One Student. He has tried several times to enter into a dialogue with Google, but so far without success, as an attempt to speak with the General Counsel of Google Germany was denied.

To defend himself he has publicly released legal case studies in an attempt to prove that the claims Google has made so far are wrong. He has also started a public petition on Change.org which has been signed by more than 300.000 people so far. Despite this Google continue to be unwilling to enter into a dialogue with Philip.