YouTube has accused media conglomerate Viacom of secretly uploading content to the video-sharing site whilst publicly complaining about its presence.

YouTube said it deliberately “roughed up” any uploaded videos to make them look stolen or leaked.

The accusation was made as a court prepares to rule in a $1bn suit brought by Viacom against Youtube for “massive intentional copyright infringement”.

To read this BBC News report in full, see:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8575666.stm

Also see:

Google, Viacom trade blows in YouTube copyright spat
Google and the US media giant Viacom have issued statements attacking each other after a judge released documents relating to Viacom’s billion-dollar copyright infringement case against YouTube.

The courtroom opponents have each separately requested summary judgement in the case, which is being heard by Judge Louis Stanton in US District Court in the Southern District of New York. In the three-year-old suit, Viacom alleges that YouTube posted nearly 160,000 unauthorised clips of content owned by Viacom. It has asked the court to halt the alleged copyright infringement and for YouTube owner Google to pay $1bn (£666m) in damages.
www.zdnet.co.uk/news/intellectual-property/2010/03/19/google-viacom-trade-blows-in-youtube-copyright-spat-40088376/