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Viacom Sues Google

The media giant Viacom, the company which owns MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures, announced Tuesday that it intends to sue the Internet Search giant Google for alleged copyright infringement in Google`s video-sharing-website ? YouTube. Google purchased YouTube, last year, and it already entangled Google in legal battle with other big media companies, including NBC and CBS, but up to now, Google had reached agreement with the said companies for future collaboration. Viacom has been in negotiations with Google, during the past month, but eventually decided to sue, after it felt that the negotiations will fail to halt the alleged copyright infringement.

Google announced it was prepared to prove the allegations false in court, feeling confidant that "YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders". One of the company`s spokespersons 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, more traffic and build a stronger community."

Viacom, unimpressed with Google`s confidence, believe that the 160 thousand Viacom video clips viewed over 1.5 billion times on YouTube without the permission of the company are, in fact, a case of massive copyright infringement. "YouTube is a significant, for-profit organization that has built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others` creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google," Viacom alleged, hinting that Google and YouTube were illegally profiting from the distribution of unauthorized video distribution by selling advertising.