This story isn't making the headlines it should be, so let me give you the skinny on what's going down between the two communications behemoths Viacom and Google.

Viacom (who own MTV and Comedy Central among other entities) are suing Google for what they say are massive copyright violations, and they reckon 1 kazillion billion dollars aught to put the matter to rest. To be more precise, Viacom says Google, who own Youtube, don't do enough to filter out copyright content that has been uploaded by users.

Viacom said it had identified more than 150,000 unauthorised clips of copyrighted programming - including SpongeBob SquarePants, South Park and MTV Unplugged episodes and the documentary An Inconvenient Truth - that had been viewed an astounding 1.5 billion times. ()

I would hazard a guess here that a more realistic figure for Viacom to go after might resemble something closer to $0.00, or if I wanted to be a cynical bastard maybe they should owe Google for what is likely to have been increased revenue from the exposure generated by Google's video services.

But if history is anything to go by, Lawyers don't see the obvious and instead advise their clients to plead "copyright violation - give us money!". It will all come down to how convincing Google's Lawyers are explaining how copyright content is managed once a flag has been raised. According to Google, the moment they are alerted to an uploaded video that is in breach of copyright, they remove it. They also say that Youtube strictly adheres to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and submitted papers to a judge which state that Youtube "goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content owners to protect their works."

If that wasn't enough, Google are playing another hand, stating that any entity held liable for internet communications "threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and artistic expression."

Both parties have more money than God and Satan combined, so it will be interesting to see who caves first, or if an offer is made to settle. My money and hope is on Google prevailing.