Google Stares Down Viacom, Copyright

(NEWSER) - Viacom filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google yesterday for what it says is gross copyright infringement on YouTube, the company's newest acquisition. Google has promised to work with companies to remove copyrighted material, but Viacom complains that illegally posted clips of its programs like "The Daily Show" have been watched on YouTube “an astounding 1.5 billion times.” More»

Technique designed to dodge Viacom lawsuit

(NEWSER) - Google yesterday unveiled new technology to seek out copyright-protected material on its YouTube site, which the company hopes will head off Viacom's $1 billion lawsuit. The software scans videos, breaks them down into data points and analyzes them so that any matching versions can be flagged and removed "in a matter of minutes," said a YouTube exec. More»

Join sports leagues and other aggrieved parties in class-action suit

(NEWSER) - Apparently YouTube forgot to make a deal for the music and lyrics played on its website, or so claims a music publishers’ association that has joined a growing copyright lawsuit aimed at Google, the site's owner, ars technica reports. YouTube, which did agree to share ad revenue with four major music labels, continues to remove copyright-violating videos when asked and plans to install a new filtering system by fall. More»

Parsons: 'They are the Custer of the modern world. We are the Sioux Nation.'

(NEWSER) - A panel of top television executives at a Vegas conference yesterday went on the offensive against their digital rivals, blasting the perception that cell phones, the Web, and other digital formats are killing their business. Quite the contrary, pronounced Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons: "The Googles, they are the Custer of the modern world. We are the Sioux Nation." More»

Copyright-protected content will be available for free online in new NBC-News Corp. partnernship

(NEWSER) - TV biggies NBC Universal and News Corp. are teaming up to hit YouTube with the full force of their their combined TV content, offered online for free. Starting this summer, AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN and News Corp. subsidiary MySpace will hope to win over internet users (and the advertising that goes with them) with shows like 24 and Heroes. More»