Viacom Sues YouTube

March 13, 2007

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These were bound to start happening. This morning, Viacom (the owner of MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and other cable networks) took a swing at YouTube by filing a $1 billion copyright lawsuit against the video-sharing site and corporate owner Google Inc.

The lawsuit marks a sharp escalation of long-simmering tensions between Viacom and YouTube and represents the biggest confrontation to date between a major media company and the hugely popular site, which Google bought in November for $1.76 billion.

Last month Viacom demanded that YouTube remove more than 100,000 unauthorized clips from its site, and since that time the company has uncovered more than 50,000 additional unauthorized clips, Viacom spokesman Jeremy Zweig said.

A quick search of YouTube's site Tuesday turned up numerous clips from Viacom programs including segments from Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'' and Nickelodeon's ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' cartoon.
In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, Viacom says YouTube ''harnessed technology to willfully infringe copyrights on a huge scale'' and had ''brazen disregard'' of intellectual property laws.

Viacom is especially concerned about YouTube’s use of it’s programs because it has been selling episodes of shows like ''The Daily Show'' and ''South Park'' for $1.99 each through Apple Inc.'s iTunes service. Those shows can then be viewed on a computer or video iPod.

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