Viacom, the parent company of MTV and Comedy Central, sued Google and YouTube in federal court today, citing “massive intentional copyright infringement.”
Viacom, which has feuded publicly with YouTube and its parent Google about the unauthorized posting of its programming online, said it was seeking more than $1 billion in damages. Viacom’s suit is the most aggressive move so far by an old-line media company against the highly popular but legally questionable practice of posting copyrighted media content online.
In a statement, Viacom accused the video-sharing Web site of “exploiting the devotion of fans to others’ creative work in order to enrich itself.” It added: “There is no question that YouTube and Google are continuing to take the fruit of our efforts without permission and destroying enormous value in the process.”
The lawsuit is the latest scuffle between YouTube and Viacom. Last month, Viacom demanded that YouTube remove more than 100,000 clips of its programming. YouTube complied, and in some cases posted a disclaimer that read: “removed at the request of Viacom International” where Viacom material once was.
Viacom said today that nearly 160,000 clips of its programming have been available on YouTube and that they had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times.
Before Viacom ordered YouTube to take down the video, the two had been working toward an agreement. Many of Viacom’s shows like Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and MTV’s stable of reality television programs are highly popular with the YouTube demographic and are potentially worth a large sum if licensed to an online video service. But the two companies have been unable to reach a deal.
YouTube is supported by advertising, but in most cases it does not share that revenue with copyright holders. It has been pursuing licensing agreements with other major American media companies but has so far been unable to do so, though it is forming partnerships with hundreds of smaller media companies.
