Marketing Pilgrim

MSNBC is reporting that Viacom is suing Google and YouTube to the tune of $1 billion dollar. The suit stems from alleged unauthorized use on their programming.

In a statement, Viacom lashed out at YouTube’s business practices, saying it has “built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to other’ 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.”

Viacom owns such channels such as Comedy Central, VH1, MTV, and Nickelodeon.