Viacom (parent company of BET, CMT, Comedy Central, DreamWorks, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, VH1 and more) filed a $1 billion lawsuit earlier today in federal court seeking damages from YouTube and its new parent company Google, claiming “massive intentional copyright infringement.”  Apparently there are more than 160,000 clips that’s produced by one or more of Viacom’s subsidiaries that have been made available on YouTube and viewed 1.5 billion times without Viacom’s authorization.

Viacom claims Google/YouTube are stealing “value from artists” and that they are taking the “fruit of our efforts without permission and destroying enormous value in the process.”

It seems to me that it’s counter-productive for Viacom to sue a website that’s giving free exposure and generate buzz for its already aired shows and programs.  I mean it’s not like Viacom is selling any of these clips and programs, they ALREADY aired and Viacom ALREADY got paid from sponsors for them.  Having 2 minute clips from shows only make people want to go out and buy the full DVDs when they come out!

So there has to be other agendas.  Viacom has been holding negotiations with Google/YouTube recently, presumebly to cut a licensing deal, and it seems that GooTube doesn’t want to pay what Viacom wants so this must be part of the strong arm tactic to get GooTube to go along with the deal…  Interesting…

It’s NOT Hot, and it barely drove Google’s stock down like 1% lol!