SueTube

Everyone knows that Google--owner of, um, the Internet--recently purchased YouTube for like a hundred bajillion dollars (or $1.65 billion, whatever). Back then, it seemed like a pretty awesome business move (all those impressions!!!!), but the conglorporation might be kicking itself after Viacom--owner of, um, television?--announced it is suing Google for $1b over copyright infringement.

Marc "Smarty Pants" Cuban, the self-proclaimed Blog Maverick, whatever that means, and founder of broadcast.com said this was gonna happen: "Google will get sued by thousands of rights holders." And boy, was he right! Viacom alleges that about 160,000 unauthorized clips are floating around on YouTube and have been viewed more than 1.5 billion times, so lawyers are pretty happy.

But why didn't Viacom sue YouTube a long time ago? Well, if you possessed the mental capacity of Marc Cuban, which you don't, then you would've figured out long ago that lawyers were stealthily waiting around for Google to buy out YouTube so they could jump into their infinitely deep pockets and swim in sweet delicious money.

And Google's response? They're claiming innocence, meaning they're stalling while they scrape up enough money to buy Viacom, which they could probably find under the cushions of the couches in Google's break room. I heard there are million-dollar bills under there.

But in the end, guess who benefits? You! NewsCorp & NBC have teamed up for a more proactive response--to develop an online video portal, chock full of content like House, Heroes and 24, plus hit movies... allegedly. I'll believe it when I see it. But if it really happens, it might be the beginning of the end of TV as we know it. Just kidding. And what does Marc Cuban have to say about all this? "It's a great idea." Thanks, Marc.