Viacom sues Google, YouTube for $1 billion

Reuters reports that Viacom has slapped Google and YouTube with a $1 billion lawsuit
over unauthorized programming online. According to the lawsuit, Viacom
says that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of its programming have
been uploaded onto YouTube’s site and viewed more than 1.5 billion
times.

The lawsuit points to a sticky wicket for YouTube which believes in
YouTube end-users being responsible for identifying copyrighted or
inappropriate material. It’s similar to the woes experienced by the
audio file sharing service Napster when it too said it was not
responsible for the actions of those who used the technology to
distribute copyrighted material.