• New York Post, Monday, March 19, 2007 11 AM

The biggest risk Viacom is facing in a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube isn't financial or legal, but cultural. The action makes the parent of MTV look "more like a Luddite than a company that has its finger on the pulse of youth culture."

It's a risky move, because as YouTube, MySpace and other sites replace MTV as the "arbiters of cool," it can't afford to upset its audience. "YouTube users are getting pissed off at them," says one source close to Viacom.

Or, as Judson Laipply, whose "Evolution of Dance" clip is the most watched in YouTube history, puts it: "Personally, I'm torn. I understand Viacom's argument, but in the same light, I am not sure it has any validity." The media giants, he continues, realize that profits are falling. but "instead of seeking out creative ways of trying to work with the changes in culture, they are trying to stop those changes."

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