In a move that surprised no one, Viacom announced today that they are suing Google for $1 billion, reports CNN. This is the first big lawsuit to hit Google concerning their recently-purchased YouTube, home to pirated video from across the globe. Viacom is also seeking an injunction against Google and YouTube against further copyright violations.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, lawyers for Viacom said that "almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom's programming have been available on YouTube and that these clips had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times."

In a separate statement, a spokesperson for Viacom said, "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 responded that the company had yet to see the lawsuit but that Google feels "confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree.

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YouTube's stated position on copyrighted material is that users are not permitted to upload content they do not own to the site. However, in practice, YouTube has not had the time (and, Viacom claims, the interest) in effectively policing the site for material that infringes copyright. Viacom's main income source is through their advertising, and any revenue lost from online viewing without paid ads eats into their bottom line. Viacom owns MTV, BET, Comedy Central, and Star Trek parent Paramount, among other holdings, and so sees a great deal of their programming available for download online. This lawsuit comes after repeated warnings to Google of pending action, and may herald lawsuits by other corporations looking to recover lost viewers. But the real losers are going to be the consumers, who have found in YouTube a way to access content they might otherwise have never encountered. Fans flock to shows that allow downloads; they flee from corporations that crack down on them.