Viacom sues Google for $1 billion

Well the gathering poop storm heading YouTube’s way has arrived: Viacom is suing Google over alleged copyright infringement from the company’s video-sharing site for $1 billion. The lawsuit, comes on the heels of Viacom’s recent request that Google take down Viacom videos to YouTube. Viacom demanded Google remove over 100,000 of its clips from YouTube, which Google acquired last year for $1.65 billion. Some 160,000 Viacom video clips have been uploaded to YouTube without permission and have been viewed over 1.5 billion times, Viacom alleges. Viacom videos are some of YouTube’s most popular from TV networks such as Comedy Central and MTV.Earlier this year Google said it would comply with the request but apparently Viacom wasn’t satisfied. So now Viacom also want the court to grant an injunction barring Google and YouTube from continuing the alleged infringement. Google told our sister organization, the IDG News Service, that it stands ready to fight the allegations and is confident that “YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders.” “We will certainly not let this suit become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube and its ability to attract more users, more traffic and build a stronger community.”When Goggle bought YouTube’s many experts said the company would not be able to avoid lawsuits over the vast amount of copyright material that exists on the site, and some predicted the company would soon be hit with lawsuits. In recent months Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Entertainment and Warner Music Group each signed deals with the companies earlier this week to display their content, which could help shield the video sites from some lawsuits. The site has in the past cooperated with some content providers.