New York: In a clash of giants, media conglomerate Viacom is suing popular video sharing website YouTube and its parent Google for more than $1 billion, accusing the ambitious online portal of "massive international copyright violation."
Though other entertainment companies too have complained against copyright violations, this is first time that a law suit has been filed, challenging the strategy of web search engine to dominate video market to earn hefty advertisement revenue.
The outcome of the suit, filed in US District Court for Southern District of New York, would be closely watched as this could have profound effect on the future functioning of the information sharing websites.
The suit alleges that about 160,000 clips of Viacom Entertainment programme have been uploaded on the site and viewed more than 1.5 billion times.
Viacom owns Paramount Pictures, Dream Works and several cable channels including the MTV and comedy central.
It is seeking an injunction against YouTube to end copy right infringement as also damages worth more than $1 billion.
In the complaint, Viacom charged YouTube with "brazen disregard" of the intellectual property laws which, it said, fundamentally threatens not just Viacom but the "economic underpinning of one of the most important sectors of the United States economy."
But Google insisted that YouTube respects copyright and said, "We will certainly not let his suit become a distraction to continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube."
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