Viacom Files $1 Billion Copyright Suit Against Google, YouTube

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 13, 2007 - 1:33pm.

New York - Media conglomerate Viacom on Tuesday announced that it has filed a $1 billion federal copyright infringement lawsuit against video-sharing site YouTube and parent company Google.

Viacom said that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of its programming -- the company's holdings include Paramount Pictures, MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon -- have been viewed more than 1.5 billion times on YouTube.

"Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws," Viacom said in a statement.

"In fact, YouTube's strategy has been to avoid taking proactive steps to curtail the infringement on its site, thus generating significant traffic and revenues for itself while shifting the entire burden -- and high cost -- of monitoring YouTube onto the victims of its infringement."

Viacom asked YouTube in February to remove over 100,000 copyrighted clips, a request it said YouTube would comply with.

"After a great deal of unproductive negotiation, and remedial efforts by ourselves and other copyright holders, YouTube continues in its unlawful business model. Therefore, we must turn to the courts," Viacom said.

YouTube said in a statement that it believes the courts will rule in its favor.

"We have not received the lawsuit but are confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree," YouTube said.

"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 [and] more traffic, and build a stronger community."