MTV owner Viacom said this afternoon it is suing YouTube and its corporate parent Google in federal court for alleged copyright infringement.
Viacom claims that over 160,000 unauthorised video clips from its cable networks have been available on the popular video-sharing site, and it is seeking more than $1 billion in damages.
The legal action marks a sharp escalation of tensions between Viacom and YouTube. Last month Viacom demanded that YouTube remove more than 100,000 unauthorised clips after several months of talks between the companies collapsed.
In a statement, Viacom criticised YouTube's business practices, saying it 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."
Viacom said YouTube's 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."
Other media companies have also clashed with YouTube over copyrights, but some, including CBS and General Electric's NBC Universal, have reached deals with the video-sharing site to license their material.
Agencies