Viacom

Not long after Google acquired YouTube, the search engine offered nearly $600 million in guaranteed revenue if Viacom--the parent company of MTV Networks, Comedy Central, and Paramount Pictures--licensed its TV shows and films to YouTube, records show.

News of Google's offer was revealed in documents released on Friday by a Manhattan federal court and reviewed by CNET. In March 2007, Viacom filed a copyright lawsuit against Google and YouTube and it has become one of the most watched legal disputes in the tech sector.

In a deposition given by Google co-founder Larry Page on October 1, 2009, a Viacom … Read more

Ever since Viacom first filed a lawsuit accusing Google's YouTube of violating copyright law, most of Hollywood has appeared determined to stay neutral. That seems to be changing.

Over the past several days, NBC Universal, Warner Bros., Disney, the Screen Actors Guild, and Directors Guild of America have all filed friend-of-the-court briefs asking the judge in the three-year-old case to rule in favor of Viacom. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), one of the music industry's largest performing rights groups also filed documents in support of Viacom.

"We are pleased that such a broad … Read more

With the North American debut of "Iron Man 2" still five days away, scores of pirated copies of the comic-flick began popping up online this weekend.

The film, starring actor Robert Downey Jr., generated a whopping $100 million in ticket sales this weekend in its overseas debut, according to Reuters. Apparently, among the millions of International moviegoers to see the film were some hiding handheld cameras.

At The Pirate Bay on Sunday evening, there were dozens of copies of the Paramount Pictures' film available for download. According to comments by users, the copies available were recorded by people … Read more

We tried so hard to enjoy various good news items today, like how the DirecTV TiVo is coming in 2010, Sony is climbing up the game console sale charts, and the tech sector is finally hiring again and making money and stuff! But ... you know. There's also Sony's refusal to refund retailers who give money back to unhappy PS3 owners, Ireland trying to censor the Internet, and Ning working as hard as possible to lose every single one of its users. We tried, though. We really did. --Molly

Viacom says newly released documents in its copyright fight with Google over the search engine's YouTube subsidiary help prove its case.

We've heard these kinds of sweeping declarations from both sides throughout the legal standoff, which began when Viacom filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google in 2007, claiming YouTube encouraged users to commit intellectual property theft. A review of the documents filed with the court on Thursday shows that much of the material, such as Google employees making critical statements about YouTube's "rogue" business model before buying the video sharing site in October 2006 … Read more

The ailing Rhapsody music service that Viacom and RealNetworks failed to revive starts going it alone this month. The newly independent company will partner with a major music label this time around as well as slash monthly music prices from $15 to $10.

In February, Viacom and Real announced they would spin off the jointly run music subscription service and that they would sell a minority share while each held on to 47 percent of the company's stock. On Monday, Rhapsody said that Universal Music Group, the largest of the top four recording companies, has acquired a stake of … Read more

One of the most closely watched races in online video the past two years has been between Hulu and YouTube, and it appears Hulu has just earned some bragging rights.

In a New York Times interview, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said the streaming video service has posted profits in two quarters (though he provided few details). Kilar also said that revenue surpassed $100 million in 2009.

Profits are a significant benchmark for the company, jointly owned by News Corp., NBC Universal, and Disney. Two years ago, Google's YouTube reigned over online video nearly unchallenged. YouTube employees snickered at the … Read more

NEW YORK--Bob Tur, the Los Angeles broadcast journalist whose company sued YouTube in 2006 over a copyright complaint, has been accused by Google-employed lawyers of leaking confidential court documents related to the depositions of YouTube and Google executives in a longstanding battle with Viacom over pirated content.

In a hearing Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, attorney Andrew Schapiro of the law firm Mayer Brown cited circumstantial evidence that he claimed pinpoints Tur as the source of documents leaked to CNET's Greg Sandoval. Those documents included a deposition on behalf of … Read more

Parties in the Viacom-Google copyright court case plan to meet Friday to discuss an investigation into leaked materials at the heart of two CNET stories from last fall, according to multiple sources.

Judge Louis Stanton is expected to discuss the progress of an investigation into who leaked court documents related to the depositions of Google CEO Eric Schmidt and YouTube managers, revealing that Google knew it was overpaying for the video upload site in 2005 and that YouTube managers were likewise aware that copyright material was being uploaded to the site, according to the sources. It's not clear whether … Read more