The mother of all court battles -- Viacom v. Youtube

It is highly probable that this one will eventually end up in the Supreme Court.  For people that get their news online, this will decide a lot.  The case is Viacom v. Youtube -- regarding the right for Youtube users to publish taped television excerpts on the internet.  Google, which now owns Youtube, is getting ready for the big fight.  The court battle will begin in 30 days:

Viacom is suing Google and its video-sharing platform YouTube for "massive intentional copyright infringement" of Viacom's entertainment properties.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks more than $1 billion in damages, as well as an injunction prohibiting Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement, Viacom said in a statement.

According to a copy of the suit, the Viacom contends that Google has intentionally avoided taking "proactive steps" to prevent viewers from accessing almost 160,000 Viacom clips on YouTube. Viacom said YouTube users have viewed illegal copies of Viacom programming over 1.5 billion times.

"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. Therefore, we must turn to the courts," Viacom said.

According to a Google spokesperson, the company has not received the lawsuit. However, the spokesperson added, the company is confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believes the courts will agree. Google has 30 days to respond in court.

This all sounds very familiar.  It looks like someone predicted Google would get sued for copyright infringement.  Great call, EPIC!