So Viacom is suing Google. This isn't as big a deal as the media would have you believe, says Henry Blodgett, Merrill Lynch's infamous Internet analyst during the dot com bubble. Why? Because once Google starts fighting the lawsuit, the companies will be in court for years, during which time, Viacom's TV content will become less relevant as YouTube's platform grows in reach and influence. Further, the $1 billion figure is absurd for several reasons. Viacom wanted headlines, and it got headlines, but $1 billion is "chump change in this league." The injunction is much more damaging, although all …

Another Viacom-suit naysayer, Business 2.0's Owen Thomas Magazine, says there's one thing missing from most coverage of the $1 billion lawsuit against Google and YouTube: the law. YouTube hosts a bunch of copyrighted material--but Google employees didn't put it there, the Web site's users did. Whether Viacom's legal team likes it or not, stolen content that comes from users is treated differently. See the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1996. Web site operators aren't responsible for content uploaded by their users, they have only to take it down when a copyright owner requests it. Just because YouTube keeps promising …

The Internet's technology giants have dreamed of TV airwaves to deliver Web access. A coalition led by Google, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Phillips is asking regulators to allow idle TV channels, called "white space," to be used for that purpose. The group on Wednesday was expected to deliver a prototype device to the Federal Communications Commission built by Microsoft. It will undergo months of testing, but if it passes inspection, it could go to market by early 2009. For the FCC, which governs the use of TV and radio airwaves, the idea presents a host of technological and ethical …

Over the past few years, Google has been one of the loudest voices championing the cause of Net neutrality. However, is it on the level? These days, Google is in the business of cutting deals with the very same telecom companies it's lobbied against. It wants to become the preferred provider for certain carriers' networks. Recent comments by Google Senior Policy Counsel Andrew McLaughlin suggest the Web conglomerate may be softening its liberal stance on the hot-button technology issue: "Net neutrality will ultimately be solved by competition in the long-run," he said. "Cutting the FCC out the picture …

Citing "unproductive" settlement talks and knowing and persistent copyright infringement from which it generates profit, Viacom Inc. has sued Google and its YouTube unit for more than $1 billion in damages. The media giant, which filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is also seeking an injunction that would prevent Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement. From Viacom's complaint: "The availability on the YouTube site of a vast library of the copyrighted works of Plaintiffs and others is the cornerstone of Defendants' business plan. YouTube deliberately built up a library …

It's not just movie and music companies that lose money from piracy, the video-game biz misses out on more than $3 billion annually, according to the Entertainment Software Association. That figure that doesn't even take into account piracy over the Internet. Scott Miller of 3D Realms estimates that as much as 50 percent of PC games sales are lost to piracy. It also affects team morale. What's being done to help? Current methods of combating piracy include physical protection, DVD authentication systems, online "guerilla" warfare against groups running piracy Web rings, infringement lawsuits, the FBI and customs. Not …

Is AT&T considering a Yahoo acquisition? The now-again world's largest telecom has considered acquiring the Web portal in the past, particularly because the companies have been selling a joint Internet service in a relationship that goes back six years. However, in recent years, AT&T, through a series of acquisitions and an acquirement by SBC Communications, has reemerged as the telecom industry's biggest firm, while Yahoo was the tech sector's wounded animal on Wall Street last year, down about 40 percent. As a result, network provider AT&T wants to renegotiate its branded ISP partnership with Yahoo, mostly because the balance …

Shortly after rival Sony announced its social networking/virtual world concept for its new online PlayStation service, Nintendo Corp. detailed plans to move its "Mii" concept forward for its game console, Wii, with similar features. Analysts are bullish on Nintendo's new social- networking idea, which would include chat, popularity contests and other community events, in addition to player avatars (or Mii's") representing them in games. To keep gamers around, the community would also feature news and weather reports and photo-sharing. Gaming analyst Richard Doherty says the move is a smart one by Nintendo. Within a year, the Wii may …

Does showbiz have Web fright? Hollywood, an industry that's used to shifting gears quickly, is stuck in a rut in the case of YouTube and online video. Once touted as a new medium "handy for branding" YouTube, post-Google that is, has become hands-off. That curious decision (which inevitably comes from production co.'s big media parents), has left many industry pundits wondering, why they should turn their backs on free promotion? In the case of Viacom, once it demanded that its clips be removed, all of its clips were removed, including those for the VH1 show "Flavor of Love," …

Yahoo has repeatedly been criticized for its failure to leverage its social networking properties into something more comprehensive and, well, useful for consumers. The Web giant hasn't been sitting on its hands, but it's not making any lofty promises either: last week the Sunnyvale, Calif. outfit relaunched its Yahoo Answers service as a network--one that already has the kind of international reach (at 90 million worldwide users) to rival the likes of MySpace and Facebook. However, its approach is more niche than big mess, like its other social-ish properties del.icio.us, Flickr and MyBlogLog. The aim here is to get …