• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, May 7, 2008

With money no obstacle, Google and Viacom apparently are prepared to battle indefinitely about whether YouTube is legally responsible for pirated clips that appear on the site.

Today, Google's David Eun, vice president in charge of content partnerships, said the company was digging in for a long fight. "We're going all the way to the Supreme Court," he reportedly said.

Eun's comments came on the heels of a speech by Viacom chair Sumner Redstone in which he spelled out a take-no-prisoners approach. "We cannot tolerate any form of piracy by anyone, including YouTube," he said, according to Dow Jones. "They cannot get away with stealing our products."

There's no question that the companies are far apart on the major legal issue -- whether the Digital Millennium Copyright Act gives YouTube a safe harbor from liability. Generally, that law says that Web companies are immune from copyright lawsuits if they remove pirated content when owners ask them to. But there are exceptions: if a Web company profits from the pirated content, it might not be able to claim the safe harbor.

Viacom argues that YouTube built its business on copyrighted clips. Google says Congress passed the DMCA to encourage innovators to come up with new services -- like YouTube -- without fear of lawsuits. With little precedent on point, each company has reason to think the decision will go its way.

But that doesn't mean that continuing with this litigation is a smart business move. Other media companies, ranging from Viacom's former corporate sibling CBS to Hulu.com backer NBC to record labels, have forged deals with YouTube, using its vast reach and simple interface to distribute clips. Why Viacom would rather take its chances in court than do the same is one of the more puzzling questions of the Web 2.0 era.