Viacom sues Google's YouTube for $1 billion

Viacom has filed a lawsuit seeking $1 billion in damages from Google, alleging copyright infringement by YouTube, its video-sharing site.

Filed in U.S. District Court in New York last week, the legal action follows a complaint Viacom made to Google last month over the alleged unauthorized posting of Viacom videos on YouTube.

At the time, Viacom demanded that Google remove more than 100,000 of its clips from YouTube. Google responded that it would comply with the request.

In the lawsuit, Viacom claims that YouTube has allowed and benefited from "massive intentional" copyright violations of its video content. In addition to the monetary damages, Viacom is asking the court for an injunction barring Google and YouTube from continuing the alleged infringement.