Viacom Sues Google Over YouTube for $1 Billion

Snowgen writes "Viacom has filed a $1,000,000,000.00 lawsuit for 'massive intentional copyright infringement' against Google over YouTube video clips. '"YouTube's strategy has been to avoid taking proactive steps to curtail the infringement on its site," Viacom said in a statement. "Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws.'"

Whew

[Applekid]

Good thing they pulled all those Viacom clips from Youtube last few months, otherwise they might have been sued for, like, a billion dollars!

Oh, wait.

Pfft, meaningless from the start...

[mixonic]

1 Billion bucks? Could you _please_ pick a number that is at least related to what you're suing over?

Austin Powers

[omega9]

Why ask for one BILLION dollars, when you can ask for ONE MILLION DOLLARS?!?! MUHAHAHAHAhahahaha...ha..aha..*ahem*.

Why stop there?

[Hoi Polloi]

They should go for a zillion-gabillion dollars!

Lawsuits should always be based on nice round numbers, not actual proven damages.

Re:Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet... Yogurt!

Viacom Demands YouTube Return Viewers

[twitter]

Once again, life imitates parody [theonion.com]. I did not know they were worth a billion dollars.

Hmmm...

[richdun]

(as of about the time I posted this)

Google's market cap: $139.97 billion

Viacom's market cap: $27.61 billion
CBS' market cap: $24.38 billion (sorta kinda relevent here)

I think it's just a little market cap envy. Next stop: Google buys Viacom?

If I were Google, I might just pay it.

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws.

Google: "No shit. Here's your billion, we've got a couple more to spare. Muh-huh-huh-ha."

Bound to happen

[Azathfeld]

If they didn't sue over this, Viacom was going to sue Google over the defamation inherent in their "don't be evil" motto. They still face possible pending charges under that from the RIAA; SCO; Microsoft; Halliburton; the Republican party; Al Qaeda; Dr. Evil, natch; and, oddly, Bono of U2 fame.

Re:Please:

[ePhil_One]

Google, please drop all Viacom sites from google.com.

Yes, Google should hold Viacom sites hostage until they give up their legal rights. I for one welcome our new Google overlords.

Re:Bound to happen

[hooded_fang]

really, Bono is far more of a flaming promosexual

Re:Just numbers relevant to "IBM/SCO on their ass"

[dextromulous]

Furlongs between corporate headquarters?

Has anyone else noticed...

[realinvalidname]

...the entertainment industry's lawsuits are way more interesting than their TV shows, movies, and records? Maybe they should formally change their business model and go primarily into lawsuits as a creative medium.

Thank you for that

[iceperson]

I really appreciate you coming down from your clearly enlightened high horse long enough to type that up...

Re:Please:

[russ1337]

>>> "Google would be shooting themselves in the face to spite a pimple".

In this case, Google would be shooting themselves in the face to spite a large cancerous growth.

Re:I predicted this a while ago

[jfengel]

I'm not saying that Google is some paragon of virtue, but they have money and lawyers.

Now all they need is guns. It would be much more fun and would earn the Warren Zevon seal of approval.

Re:Whew

[siDDis]

What is Viacom? I can't google it...

Re:Yeah, big surprise

[Bobby Mahoney]

A cloaked sith lord sits in an ominous rotating chair aboard the google-star, as he reads the law suit: "Excellent, everything is going precisely as planned. Ready my ship commander."

Re:Great!

[Dan East]

Wikipedia, eh? There. Now Google has an extra $100 Billion revenue to work with.

Dan East

Re:Please:

[magarity]

what if Google instead just demoted Viacom links a little in the search results
 
Don't bother. Just buy Viacom and stop suing themselves. Problem solved.

Re:Just numbers relevant to "IBM/SCO on their ass"

[portnoy]

Average corporate phone number.

Re:Yeah, big surprise

[multipartmixed]

Wow, I had never before considered that.

You must be absolutely correct. It is the only explanation which fits the facts.

Thanks.

Re:Please:

[CommunistHamster]

Or, perhaps:

"You searched for Viacom. No results were found. Did you mean Torrentspy?"

Re:Just numbers relevant to "IBM/SCO on their ass"

[aztec rain god]

23,528 furlongs (from google maps)

Re:Just numbers relevant to "IBM/SCO on their ass"

[Thwomp]

I don't know about that, but going by the poster below it's about 1,165801.80 Volkswagen Beetles. Is that any help?