San Francisco - NBC Universal and Viacom on Friday submitted a friend of the court brief in a federal case where a man is suing Google's YouTube for copyright infringement of his video content, Reuters reported.

The media firms sided with Robert Tur, a videographer whose infamous footage of truck driver Reginald Denny being beaten during the 1992 Los Angeles riots was posted on YouTube without his permission.

In their filing with the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California, NBC Universal and Viacom oppose YouTube's motion to have the case dismissed.

"Many of NBCU's most valuable copyrighted works have been copied, performed, and disseminated without authorization by YouTube and other similarly operated Websites," the company said in the filing.

"NBCU has a strong interest in preserving the strength and viability of all of its legal rights and remedies in response to such conduct."

For its part, Viacom has separately filed its own $1 billion copyright infringement suit against YouTube.

Related Links:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070507/wr_nm/youtube_nbcuniversal_dc_1

http://tinyurl.com/2uuf69 (DMW previous coverage)