Google’s copyright nightmare: Viacom sues YouTube

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Alleging "massive intentional copyright infringement", entertainment giant Viacom Media on Tuesday filed a suit with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking over US $1 billion in damages and an injunction against further violations against YouTube and its owner Google Inc.

Founded in February 2005 by three former employees of PayPal as a subsidiary of Google Inc., YouTube is a popular free video sharing website which lets users upload, view, and share video clips.

In the lawsuit filed by the American media conglomerate before the federal court, Viacom claims unauthorized display of over 160,000 video clips picked collectively from MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon by YouTube.

Viacom through its lawsuit contends that programmes illegally uploaded onto YouTube's site run for several minutes and are viewed over 1.5 billion times by YouTube visitors’ generate huge advertisement revenue for YouTube.

“There is no question that YouTube and Google are continuing to take the fruit of our efforts without permission”, Viacom said.

Meanwhile in a statement defending YouTube, Google said it was "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”, it added.

Earlier, Viacom ordered removal of copyrighted video clips from the videosharing site YouTube in February over claims of “noncompensation for the violation of their own copyright”.

Thereafter, Viacom publicly announced free online access to their own material through Silicon Valley's distributor Joost thorugh a thorough content licensing deal.

"A great deal of unproductive negotiations" with the company impelled Viacom to sue Google, officials at Viacom stated.

While presently only 30 days are available to Google and YouTube to counter the Viacom suit, legal experts feel that the response period could be extended.