Viacom appeals YouTube copyright case

Wants its pound of flesh

A mightily-miffed Viacom has filed an appeal against a previous court ruling that found Google's YouTube not guilty of charges of copyright infringement.

The media company filed a case to appeal against a 23 June ruling by US District Court Judge Louis Stanton in US Second Court of Appeals in Manhattan, New York, the news agency Reuters reported.

Viacom filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google and its video streaming service YouTube for posting tens of thousands of media files that it said infringed its copyright.

The company accused YouTube of generating revenue from the copyrighted content and claimed that Google knew about it and did nothing to stop the practice.

After the ruling, Viacom said: ”We are disappointed with the judge's ruling, but confident we will win on appeal. It is and should be illegal for companies to build their businesses with creative material they have stolen from others."

Google heralded the decision as a victory "for the billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other."